When Thunder Meets Lightning
by pastelshadows
Summary: A collection of drabbles concerning Nico and Thalia's growing relationship.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi, everyone! So after many days of apathy, I decided to write a Thalico fic. But get this: it's a group of drabbles each chapter, brought on by words from a random word generator. Just trying out the idea. :) Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p><span>When Lightning Meets Thunder<span>

**Stuffing**

'Are you _serious, _Nico? How old are you, anyway?'

'Oh, you shut up!'

'Is this because of your daddy issues? Are you feeling the urge to relive your childhood because you missed out on half of it?'

'Oh, gods. Why are you here again?'

'Because you're not allowed to leave camp alone. Probably because you'd attract a vast amount of monsters, but I think it's because Chiron thinks you might burst into flame at the exposure to sunlight –'

'Go to Tartarus!'

'Watch your mouth, kid.'

'I'm about seventy years older than you.'

'Not the point. Exactly how much are you going to stuff that teddy bear? It might spontaneously explode.'

With a dirty look directed at Thalia, Nico wrestled his bear away from the stuffing machine. Thalia was right; it looked fit to bust.

'The bear isn't even for me,' he lied.

'Sure it isn't. Come on, let's go pick out some clothes. I saw this really epic zombie nurse costume.'

'_Some_body's enthusiastic all of a sudden.'

'Yeah, well, I had daddy issues too. Let's move.'

* * *

><p><strong>Picnic<strong>

When Thalia arrived at Nico's door somewhere around 2 am and handed him a basket, the first thing he could think to say was, 'It's 2 am.'

'Excellent observation. Put on some shoes, we're going for a picnic.'

Nico looked rightly bewildered. 'But … why?'

'Because I said so. If you stand here arguing I'm going to drag you out regardless of your bare feet.'

'Nightmares?' Nico said knowingly. Thalia sometimes had nightmares – more like flashbacks, to what happened the few weeks before she became a tree. He didn't know all of what happened, but from what he knew, it sounded pretty bad. Especially for a little kid, like Thalia was at the time.

'Are you coming or not?' Thalia said, ignoring his question.

Nico sighed grudgingly. 'Fine,' he muttered, slipping his feet into the nearest pair of slippers and stepping out into the cold night.

Thalia looked at his feet in amusement. 'Batman? Really, Nico?'

'Just … can we go yet?'

It should have taken them ten minutes to get Zeus' Fist, but thanks to Nico's whining about how rocks were getting in his slippers and sarcastic replies from Thalia, it took them a good half hour.

'So, what exactly are we doing?' Nico said evenly, once they had both flopped down on top of the hill.

'Eat,' Thalia said, unloading chocolate bars, soda cans, crisp packets and many more unhealthy treats from the basket.

Nico sat up quickly. 'Where did you get all that?' he asked, almost in reverence.

'I paid the Stolls. Now eat up, or else I'm going to have it all to myself.'

They dug into the tooth-rotting goodness in companionable silence. Sometimes Nico was a giant pain to Thalia – and vice versa – but at moments like these, they were okay.

Possibly even more than okay.

* * *

><p><strong>Winner<strong>

They stared at each other over the board, the air crackling with tension (literally crackling with little electricity sparks, thanks to Thalia's instense concentration). Nico rolled the dice. The two little cubes seemed to spin on for an eternity before they landed on a six and a one, respectively.

'Chance,' Thalia said.

Nico said nothing, only picked up the card. His eyes skimmed across it and he grinned. 'You owe me a hundred bucks,' he said.

'Give me that!' Thalia snatched the card from his grasp and read it hurriedly. 'Dammit! I'm broke!'

Nico laughed triumphantly. 'I win!'

'How in Hades did you manage to buy almost all the properties and build houses and hotels on them?'

'Face it, Thalia, I'm just _better _than you.'

'Rematch. I demand a rematch this instant.'

'This is our fifth rematch.'

'A sixth won't matter, then. Clear this up, we're starting over.'

* * *

><p><strong>Exam<strong>

'Okay. Immortal children with Persephone.'

'How am I supposed to know?' Nico was practically tearing his hair out at this point. His father had invited him over for a weekend stay in his palace and Nico was terrified. He couldn't think of any reason why his father would want to spend more time than necessary with him, so he assumed it was a trap.

Thalia thought that Hades genuinely wanted to spend time with Nico. 'It's that Persephone I'm worried about,' she had said knowingly. 'She's going to try and make you look like a failure in as many ways as possible, which won't be too hard if we don't brush up on your dad's history.'

And that was why they were sitting in Nico's cabin, Thalia quizzing him on every miniscule fact there was to know about the god of the underworld.

'Wrong answer,' she said. 'Macaria, Zagreus, and Melinoe.'

Nico gaped at her. 'Why couldn't he have named them all Bob?'

'Oh, you're gonna _love_ this one. Who was the mother of his demigod son, Joseph Stalin?'

'Umm … Mrs. Joseph Stalin?'

'Ketevan Geladze.'

Nico paled visibly. 'I'm gonna die down there.'

'Really? You aren't already a walking corpse?'

'Screw you.'

'You wish. Back to studying.'

* * *

><p><strong>Nose<strong>

'How long is this going to take?' Nico said sulkily.

'I'm bored,' Thalia declared.

'It's only gonna take two more minutes!' Rachel said in frustration, dabbing away at her canvas. 'I knew I should have asked Percy and Annabeth to be my models instead.'

'I'm hungry,' Nico said.

Rachel sighed. 'Gods give me strength.'

'I'm done,' Rachel announced. 'D'you wanna see?'

'Not particularly,' said Nico. Thalia smacked the back of his head.

'Sure, Rachel,' she said. Rachel brought the canvas over and practically shoved it in their faces.

Thalia had to admit, it was really good. It was just a simple sketch of Nico and her, but it was drawn with utmost detail.

'I like it,' she announced. 'It was almost worth sitting all that time for.'

Nico, however, looked annoyed.

'What's with my nose?' he demanded.

Rachel narrowed her eyes. Thalia sensed a major argument coming up. Rachel was a pretty liberal person, but she was more protective of her art then she would ever be of her firstborn.

'What's wrong with your nose?' Rachel said calmly.

'Look at it!' Nico exclaimed. 'It looks nothing like my real nose! My nose doesn't have a little tilt at the end!'

'Yes it does,' Thalia said. 'It looks like a ski slope for fleas.'

'The nostrils-to-nose-length ratio is way off!' Nico insisted, ignoring Thalia's comment. 'And look at the slope! It has a gradient of, like, 5!'

'That doesn't even make any sense!' Rachel exploded.

'Does too! I look _hideous_!' Nico cried dramatically.

'Nico, just calm down,' Thalia said, her tone dangerous. 'Your nose looks fine, okay?'

Nico knew better than to argue, so he just folded his arms and sulked.

Thalia broke the silence eventually. 'Do I really have that many freckles?'

* * *

><p><strong>Mess<strong>

_Thud. Thud. Thud._

'Nico di Angelo, you let me in right this instant or I swear I will break down the door!'

Silence.

_'Nico_! Gods, you better not be sleeping again! I don't care if you hibernate or whatever during the winter, you better get your sorry ass out here right now or - '

'I can't open the door!' Nico's frantic voice sounded from behind the closed door.

'What?'

'Thalia - burn it open, or break it, or _something_!'

Thalia was kind of worried at his panicked tone, so she used her trusty spear to fry the solid wood door into ashes. As soon as she did, Nico collapsed at her feet.

'What in the name of - ' Thalia stared, openmouthed, at Nico's cabin. It was literally fit to bust with junk. Tattered army outfits, bones, old muskets, dust-covered boots ... She now understood why Nico couldn't open his door: all this stuff was blocking it.

'Some skeletons from the second world war decided to have a party in my cabin,' Nico explained tiredly, getting to his feet.

Thalia couldn't suppress a grin. 'Serves you right for summoning them all.'

Nico scowled at her. 'You're gonna help me clean this up.'

Thalia made a deal of rolling her eyes. _'Fine_,' she sighed exaggeratedly. 'Come on.'

While they were sifting through the colossal mess, Nico asked absently, 'Why had you come in the first place? To my cabin, I mean?'

'Just checking that you weren't dead. You haven't been out of your cabin for a couple days.'

Nico grinned widely. 'I knew you really cared!'

'Don't make me regret helping you, di Angelo.'

* * *

><p><strong>Worrying<strong>

'Is he gonna be okay?'

'Thalia, for the love of the gods, that's the eighth time you've asked me that. In three minutes. I _still _don't know!'

'Why _not_!'

'Be_cause_!'

Thalia lapsed into huffy silence, sitting in the hard plastic chair for about ten seconds before jumping up and pacing again. Nico had been returning to camp from (yet another) trip across the globe when he had been attacked by a wild hellhound. Nobody knows where it came from or if anybody had sent it, but Nico was now lying in the hospital wing of Camp Half-Blood and Thalia was worried out of her mind.

Chiron suddenly poked his head through the door. 'You can see Nico now,' he addressed Thalia gently. He had barely finished before she'd bolted out of her seat and into Nico's room.

Her first thought was that Nico's head looked hilariously out of proportion with that giant lump of gauze wrapped around it. Then she noticed how sallow he looked (more so than usual) and that his ribs were also taped tight with gauze.

'Hi,' he whispered, his voice hoarse.

Thalia collapsed in the chair next to him, her legs suddenly shaking. 'Gods,' she managed to say. 'You look terrible.'

Nico cracked a smile. 'Thanks for the reassurance.'

'Do you _feel _terrible?' she blurted.

'No, I'm just peachy,' he said sarcastically. 'I just got attacked by a crazed monster who broke most of my ribs and carved a giant hole out of my head and I feel just great. Top marks for a totally not-obvious question.'

Thalia winced. 'Guess I deserved that.'

'Yeah. You kinda did.' He settled back against the pillows supporting his back.

'Nico?'

'Yeah?'

'Don't ever almost-die again, okay?'

'Sure.'

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><p><strong>So that was the first group, written today in a mad sugar rush. Thoughts? Comments? Constructive criticism? Anything, really? Put it in a review! :D<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: hello again! Sorry for the updating delay, FFN was being all nasty and wouldn't let me login. So, I'm going to try to update once or twice a week, depending on my schedule.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: ****Thalia is not a part of the Hunters in this story. Whether she never joined at all or joined then quit is up to you. However you want to imagine it is fine.**

**ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: ****There isn't really a set time-frame for this. Some are going to be in the early stages of their relationship, some further on - you might even see two events that might clash, which means that they happen in different universes, if that makes sense. **

**Without further ado, another chapter of mindless drabbles!**

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><p><span>When Thunder Meets Lightning<span>

**Straw**

'Nico! Take that ridiculous hat off right this instant!'

Nico glared at Annabeth from beneath the brim of his wide straw hat. 'Just because you have a perfect tan doesn't mean you can expect everyone else to have one, too,' he snapped, yanking the hat further down over his face.

Thalia rolled her eyes, pushing her sunglasses up her head. 'Nico, don't overreact. May I point out the fact that you're absolutely caked in sunblock? Seriously. You have more sunblock than layers of skin on you right now.'

'And yet I _still_ burn like a redhead,' he complained. 'Just because my father decides that he would prefer to live in gloom and wet soil rather than sun, his whole family's cursed with looking like either china dolls or deep-fried lobsters. There's no in-between.'

'If you're done complaining, I'd like to point that I'm as pale as you, but less of a wimp,' Thalia said.

'But you don't burn!' Nico protested.

'I hope that wasn't intended as a pun,' Thalia said. After all, she _was _a daughter of Zeus, and due to the electricity charges that tended to jump all over her, she did burn sometimes, quite literally. 'Anyways, we haven't been nagging at Chiron to let us have a day off for nothing. If you're gonna whine, you can head back to your cabin.'

Nico sighed dramatically, yanking the hat off his head. 'Fine,' he grumbled.

'Aw, see? He'd rather be with you and burn then go back to safety,' Annabeth teased.

She regretted it when she got double death-glares from both of them.

* * *

><p><strong>Macintosh<strong>

Thalia peered out the window. 'It's raining,' she announced.

'Good job, Sherlock,' Nico said sarcastically, from where he was lounging on the couch and absently flipping through channels.

'You're grumpy when it's sunny, raining, windy, snowy – can't you ever be pleased?'

'Nope,' Nico declared. 'Besides, if I recall, it was _your _idea to leave camp for a – quote unquote – weekend out with the boyfriend.'

Thalia scowled. 'Yeah, well, I'm not staying locked up in this seedy motel forever just because my father doesn't approve of my dating you and has decided to match the weather to his mood. Come on, we're going out.'

'We'll freeze to death,' Nico pointed out.

'Wear a mac.'

'A what?'

'Mac? Macintosh?'

A grin spread over Nico's face. 'That is _such _a British term!'

'Ugh. Macintosh, raincoat, mink fur, whatever, just get dressed. We're going out there.'

'If you say so … chap.'

'I am seriously going to fry you.'

* * *

><p><strong>Necessary<strong>

'All packed, kids?' Percy called.

'I'm _older _than you!' Nico yelled.

'So am I!' Thalia agreed.

'Well, neither of you _look _older than me, so I win,' Percy said, sticking his tongue out. He was a hilarious sight, in a flowery blue top, cargo shorts, and a blob of zinc on his nose. Not to mention, of course, the fedora.

'Is that what you're gonna be wearing on the cruise?' Thalia snorted. 'Because the other people came to relax, not be terrified out of their wits.' Annabeth had come up with the fantastic idea that all four of them should go on a summer cruise – they deserved some relaxation, she reckoned; especially Percy, what with him saving the world a year before and all that.

'Says the punk-slash-emo-slash-goth,' Percy retorted.

'I am _not _goth!'

'Are too!'

'Stop fighting,' Annabeth ordered, finally emerging from her cabin and lugging three suitcases behind her. 'Now, is everyone ready?'

'Yes,' they all chorused.

'Right. Onto the pegasi, then.'

Everybody had climbed aboard their respective pegasus and the winged horses were about ten feet above the camp when Nico suddenly have a shriek and jolted, nearly falling of the horse.

'Guys!' he cried. 'I need to go back! I forgot something!'

Everyone else groaned. 'Are you _serious_?' Annabeth said, practically hyperventilating.

'Yes! It's important! I need it for survival!' Nico insisted.

Percy sighed and rubbed his temples. 'This better be worth it, Nico,' he warned.

Nico was already driving his pegasus basically into the ground. When it landed with much grumbling, he hopped off and dashed into his cabin, looking like a madman. When he came out a couple of seconds later, something was clutched tightly in his fist.

When he was hovering at their height, the pegasi set off again. Thalia nudged hers closer to Nico's and asked quietly, 'What did you forget?'

Nico opened his fist so she could see the tiny plastic figure of Hades.

'A Mythomagic figure? Are you _serious_?'

'It's necessary,' Nico defended himself. 'It's my lucky charm!'

Thalia snorted. 'Whatever. Don't tell Annabeth that _that _was what you forgot. She'd have a cow.'

'A cow? Hell, she'd have the whole barn.'

* * *

><p><strong>Mouse<strong>

'Gimme the remote, _now_!'

'No! I want to watch the movie that's on and by gods, I _will_ watch it!'

'But Gossip Girl's on!'

'Nico, your obsession with that show is a little worrying - _ow_, get your elbow out of my face!'

'Get your shoe out of my stomach first!'

In the midst of all the squabbling, the remote slipped out from between them and flew behind the couch. In an instant, Thalia had practically jumped off the couch and was searching under the closet for the remote.

Nico was content with just laying on the floor - after all, Thalia had got the remote first, so what was the use of getting up? - when a sudden scream got him scrambling to his feet.  
>Before he knew it, Thalia had leapt at him, her eyes wild and darting.<p>

'What is it?' he asked, scouring the room quickly for any sign of monsters or old ladies with balls of yarn.

'There's a mouse!' Thalia screeched, her voice hoarse and terrified.

Nico blinked at her. 'What?'

'A mouse,' Thalia repeated in a hushed tone. 'It's under the closet! Get rid of it!'

Nico gave a grin and walked over to the closet, managing to maneuver the remote out from underneath it.

'We're watching Gossip Girl tonight.'

* * *

><p><strong>Bread<strong>

When Nico returned from a weekend trip in his father's realm, Thalia was there to greet him at the camp borders. She was surprised to see him lugging a giant bag behind him, as well as his ratty black backpack.

Thalia raised her eyebrows. 'What's that, a body?' she asked, when Nico reached the tree.

'Hi to you too. Help me carry this thing, my arm's about to fall off.'

'Wimp,' Thalia muttered under her breath, but quickly took it back when she attempted to lift the bag and nearly yanked her arm out of its socket.

'It looks like you have more than one body in here,' she teased.

Nico rolled his eyes. 'Come on. I need to get this back to my cabin before I can figure out what I'm supposed to do with it.'

Together, they half-dragged, half-carried the bag back to Nico's cabin. He sighed happily when he saw it. 'I'd rather be in this gloomy little room than my father's palace,' he informed Thalia once they had dropped the bag outside the cabin door.

'You don't say!' Thalia said sarcastically.

'It was even more awful than usual this time.'

'What happened?'

'Demeter happened.'

Thalia winced sympathetically. She had only met Demeter once (thank the gods), and the crop goddess had spent the whole 2 minutes with Thalia trying to stuff her face full of Wheaties.

'The cereal thing?' Thalia asked.

'Not cereal. She has a new thing going now.' Nico unzipped the bag with a flourish.

Thalia could only laugh (and laugh and laugh), because the bag was practically overflowing with bread. Buns, loaves, sad little soggy slices, crescents, cottages – everything.

'It isn't funny!' Nico cried.

'Geez, Nico. Don't be so stale.'

'Seriously, cut it out.'

'Baguette over here and make me!'

'I hate you.'

'I loaf you too.'

* * *

><p><strong>Spark<strong>

The first time Nico and Thalia ever went out on an official date, there was a spark.

Quite literally.

They had gone to see a movie – a sappy romcom that they'd chosen because they knew neither of them would watch it and so they could spend the time just talking.

Halfway through the movie, around the time where one of the main characters was supposed to die or get severely injured, Nico had hesitantly taken Thalia's hand in his own.

It was pretty ridiculous how Thalia was so nervous that night, since she'd known Nico for ages then, but nervous she was. And when Thalia was nervous or angry, there were little currents of electricity running through her body.

So it really wasn't her fault that one of those little sparks happened to jump straight off her skin when Nico held her hand, setting one of the chairs in front of her (thankfully empty) on fire.

The best thing was that the date wasn't ruined. The two managed to sneak out of the theater and drive to the park, where they laughed till they cried and watched the stars (Nico helpfully pointing out the constellations until Thalia smacked him upside the head).

Five years and a daughter later, the spark was still there.

* * *

><p><strong>Rehearsal<strong>

'And … action!'

Percy cleared his throat. '_Full of vexation come I, with complaint/Against my child, my daughter Hermione –_ '

'Hermia!'

'Whoops. Sorry, Chiron. _Stand forth, Demetrius, my noble lord/This man hath my consonant to marry her –_'

'Consent!' Chiron was practically ripping his hair out.

Percy threw his hands up in frustration. 'Whose idea was it to have a bunch of dyslexic kids do a Shakespeare play? Yours!'

In an attempt to show the gods that not _all_ their children were good-for-nothing slobs, Chiron had attempted to put on the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, casting members of Camp Half-Blood as the characters. So far, it was failing. Epically.

'I have an idea,' Thalia piped up. 'How about we do a more modern rendition of it? Like, without all the big words?'

Everyone sitting at the table murmured their agreement.

Chiron sighed. 'All right, then. Take five, then we regroup.'

Nico sidled up to Thalia, who was furiously scribbling notes in the margins of her script. 'So. Hermia and Lysander, huh?' he said, with a sly grin.

Thalia rolled her eyes. 'We all know that you wheedled Chiron into letting me play your love interest,' she deadpanned.

'Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Either way, the main difference between us and Hermia and Lysander is that we don't let disapproving fathers stop us.'

* * *

><p><strong>That's all for this chapter :D I'm going to try to keep every chapter between 1700 and 2000 words. Tell me what your favorite drabble of the chapter was! :D<strong>

**An afternote - yes, I very much enjoyed making all those bread puns.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sigh. I know I haven't updated in a month, but I have no excuses, so come at me with pickaxes if you like. Surprisingly, I have no rambles, so on with the drabbles!**

* * *

><p><strong>Marriage<strong>

'Goddammit, Annabeth, that _hurts_!'

'If you'd hold still it wouldn't!'

'The thing is going haywire cuz of the electricity coming off me!'

Annabeth attempted to regain control of the hair-straightening tongs, which were letting off sparks. 'Hold still, I just have one bit left - '

Annabeth cut herself off with a shriek as the tongs began to smoke and the smoke alarm went off, drenching both of them in water.

'Well, there goes my straightened hair!' Thalia said brightly as Annabeth scowled and bustled her into the next room.

Soon Thalia was dry (with the help of Annabeth's hair-dryer-with-the-force-of-a-leaf-blower) and decked out in her dress, in all its shimmery pale blue glory.

Annabeth clasped her hands together and beamed. 'Oh, Thalia, you look stunning!'

Thalia rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, well it's not my wedding, so you better go and get dressed.'

Annabeth practically squealed with excitement and hurried back into the dressing room. Thalia wandered out into the giant marquee that had been put up in Camp Half Blood in honor of Percy and Annabeth getting married. There were pale marble columns everywhere and there were tables made of sleek oak wood, courtesy of the wood nymphs. Thalia sat at one, nearly having heart failure when someone sat down next to her.

'They really did a good job here,' Nico commented, straightening his bow tie.

'Don't just do that,' Thalia grumbled, recovering from the shock. A grin pulled at the corners of her lips at the sight of Nico, all dressed up in a black and white tuxedo.

'You look rather dapper, di Angelo.'

'Why thank you, Grace. You look dapper too.'

'Dashing.'

'Charming.'

Their eyes met and they burst out laughing.

Once their chuckles had died down, Nico said, 'You're gonna have to dance with me, you know.'

Thalia raised an eyebrow. 'What makes you think that?' she scoffed. Of course, she had been planning to dance with Nico, but she liked to banter with him.

'Because, you're the maid of honor, and I'm the best man,' Nico pointed out.

Thalia couldn't hide a grin. 'Annabeth and Percy totally planned this, didn't they?'

'Totally.'

* * *

><p><strong>Pace<strong>

It was sort of tradition for Nico and Thalia to start a food fight the second Tuesday of every month. It was supposedly disrespectful to the gods, but they hadn't gotten any complaints thus far, so they just kept on going.

Until, that is, Chiron finally found out who had been starting all the famous food fights and told both Nico and Thalia that they would do extra chores to make up for it.

And, of course, Chiron _would_ give them the most dreaded chore among the campers: cleaning Rachel's attic. The place was so messy that it oftentimes never got done in a whole day. Not even two. Being given that chore was like being sent to your deathbed. The campers even gathered round and gave farewells when you went off to the Big House.

Until, that is, something miraculous happened: Rachel announced that she only needed one pair of hands to help her out in the attic. The problem was, which one of them was to take the punishment?

They decided to set it the good old-fashioned way: a race. They were going start at that little strawberry bush that never grew any strawberries, and whoever was to reach the gnarled tree at the end first was the winner.

'Ready ... Set ... GO!'

Instantly both of them set off. It should've been a fairly smooth course, but thanks to Nico conjuring up walls of stone in front of Thalia and Thalia setting fire to the grass beneath Nico, it took much longer than it should have.

Finally, they both collapsed beneath the tree, gasping for breath between fits of laughter.

'I won!' Thalia declared.

'You did _not_!'

'I was so ahead of you!'

'You were a foot behind me!'

They continued their conversation, which was punctuated with sporadic bursts of giggles, until they were both too exhausted to carry on and just flopped back onto the grass, watching t

Nico turned his head to look at Thalia. 'We'll do it together.'

Thalia raised an eyebrow at him. 'Rachel said she only needed one pair of hands.'

'Then we'll each tie a hand behind our backs.'

* * *

><p><strong>Breeze<strong>

It was honestly just a platonic canoe ride. Completely friendly.

Maybe both of them didn't want it to be, but platonic it was.

Of course, Thalia's dad had other ideas.

When Thalia and Nico had rowed out halfway across the lake, the wind suddenly began to whip at their faces, causing Thalia's hair to smack her in the face.

'Guess I picked the wrong day to go canoeing,' Nico joked. His smile quickly disappeared when the wind began to whirl around them, smacking directly against the little boat.

'It's my dad!' Thalia shouted over the howling wind. 'He hates you!'

'Thanks!'

'No offence, I mean!'

Thalia was spared a sarcastic retort when the boat began to rock from side to side, dangerously close to tipping over.

'What do we do?' Thalia shrieked.

Nico was too busy trying to catch his jacket, which had torn off and begun to fly away. He jumped to his feet to try and grab at it, and the boat suddenly flipped, submerging both of them in the freezing water.

When they came back up, spluttering for air, Thalia screamed curses that would make a sailor blush at the sky.

When the sky was done rumbling warningly, she turned to Nico apologetically. 'Sorry,' she sighed. 'My dad can be a real pain sometimes.'

'Don't sweat it.' Nico gave a grin. 'Race you to the shore.'

'You're on!' Thalia dived underwater, Nico hot on her heels.

They still managed to have fun, splashing around and playing water-leapfrog.

Somewhere, high above them, Zeus was muttering threats to his gods-forsaken nephew.

* * *

><p><strong>Rating<strong>

Annabeth pushed her sunglasses up her head and considered it for a while. '6,' she decided.

'What? With a face like that, he's a 4. And a half. At most.'

'If you ignore the face, it's pretty much alright.'

'How can you ignore the face? It's right _there_!'

'Well, what about that one?'

'The one with the brown eyes?'

'Yeah.'

'Oh, _he_llo. 8. 8 and a half, even.'

'Shame he's wearing those ridiculous swim trunks.'

'They look like they were snatched right out of Poseidon's closet!'

Both girls dissolved into fits of giggles as Nico padded over to them, nearly tripping when his feet sunk into the soft sand. 'What are you two doing?'

'Checking out guys,' Thalia said nonchalantly, flipping a page of her magazine and peeking over the top of it. 'Ooh, Annabeth, look! The one with the yellow surfboard.'

'We have a 9!'

'That we do!'

Nico looked affronted. 'Hello? Don't you have a boyfriend? Namely, me?'

'Hey, doesn't mean I'm blind,' Thalia scoffed.

Nico sighed. 'I give up,' he announced, beginning to build a poorly-crafted sand-castle.

'Aw, don't be sad,' Thalia teased. 'Hey, are you from Tennessee?'

'Um, no?'

'Cuz you're the only 10 I see!'

_'Awful_.'

'I know.'

* * *

><p><strong>Hosepipe<strong>

Thalia pushed her fringe off her face. 'I _always_ get stuck washing the Big House,' she muttered, aiming the slippery hosepipe at a suspicious bright green stain that probably came from Chiron's party-mad cousins and their paintball guns.

'Yeah, well, I'm stuck with you,' Nico grumbled.

'You say that like I should be pleased.'

'Well, I'm sure I'm better company than Rachel, who keeps looking out of her window every two minutes and laughing.'

'Touché.'

Nico scrubbed furiously with a sponge that was about as spongy as Hades' heart. 'This blob of gods know what will _not_ come off!'

'Looks like blood,' Thalia offered.

'Yeah, that reassured me a whole lot.'

'Just trying to help!'

'Then go back to washing your own side! For the love of Nyx, you might as well be away in your cabin having a cup of nectar!'

Thalia stuck her tongue out and splashed Nico with the hose. She was aiming for his face, but accidentally got some hair, and she instantly feared for her life. Nico never bothered brushing his hair (making it stick up in cute little tufts) and paid no attention to it generally, but if anyone so much as looked at it for too long, they better be fast runners.

Nico glared at her, before quickly turning the hose on her, dousing her lucky ripped Nirvana jeans.

Thalia shrieked. 'You did not just do that!' she cried. 'They can only be washed in _warm _water! Oh, you –'

Whatever insult she was going to throw at Nico was drowned out by the spray of water as they both started drenching every part of the other. Sometime along the course of their laughter, the water suddenly fizzled out with a squeak.

They both looked at the Big House, still splattered with food, grass stains and paintball blobs, then at each other, both sopping wet.

'Well,' Thalia said, 'at least you're cleaner than the house. That's more than can be said for you most days.'

* * *

><p><strong>Tattoo<strong>

'Stop, stop!'

'Nico, I haven't even touched you yet.'

Nico gulped. He was so pale that his freckles stood out. 'I'm kind of regretting this,' he said, as Thalia rolled up his sleeve.

'Oh, come on! It's only one of those stick-on tattoos that you get in gum! Besides, it's a tattoo of Spiderman!'

Nico sighed dramatically. 'Okay then,' he said. 'But only for Spiderman's sake.'

Thalia rolled her eyes and dabbed at Nico's arm with a wet lump of tissues.

'That's cold!' he whined.

'So is your soul. Now hold still, I'm gonna apply it.'

Nico said a prayer under his breath as Thalia pressed the flimsy piece of paper to his arm, pushing down on it firmly.

'Ow! Don't press so hard!'

'Be glad I'm not pressing this hard at your heart with a spear, okay?'

Nico sniffed and held still. Thalia pulled the paper off and smiled with triumph.

'Ta da! It's all done!'

Nico scrambled to take a look at his arm. 'Hey!' he cried. 'It's one of those cheap ones where only half the tattoo comes off! They only got Spiderman's legs!'

'Too bad, princess.'

'I demand a redo.'

'Oh, please. I am not sitting through your incessant whining. Get Percy to do it.'

'But Percy's not here!'

'Exactly.'

* * *

><p><strong>Trademark sucky ending? Check! So, as usual, I'd like to thank all the reviewersfavoriters/alerters for making my day/month/life. Aaaand as usual, if you could drop a review telling me what you liked/didn't like, or your favorite drabble, I would go out of my mind with delight. (Not to say that I'm not out of my mind already.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello, my lovely readers! No, your eyes do not deceive you, I actually have updated in less than a week. So, yay.**

**SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE GUYS: ****okay, someone alerted me that there's a fic out there similar to this one. So firstly, thank you _Fairne _for telling me about that. Secondly, I honestly had no idea whatsoever about that story, just so people don't accuse me of plagiarism.**

**Anyways, on with the chapter!**

* * *

><p><strong>Giraffe<strong>

Thalia stared at the wooden sign reading giraffes, her mouth pursed and eyes narrowed. 'I am not going in there,' she declared.

'Come _on_,' Nico groaned. 'Don't be a killjoy, Thals.'

'Don't call me that!'

'They're just some llamas who got stretched in a black hole! Why are you scared of them?'

'I am not _scared_!' Thalia said indignantly. 'I just have a bad history with giraffes.'

Nico raised an eyebrow. 'Do tell.'

Thalia sighed. 'When I was four, my mom took me to see the giraffes in this very zoo and when I fed one a carrot, it spat it out on me.'

Nico blinked, and then burst out laughing.

'Nico! It isn't _funny_!'

Nico was convulsing in mirth. 'That's it? That's your giant giraffe trauma?'

'It _was_ traumatic! I don't even like carrots!'

'Give it a chance, okay?'

Thalia sighed. '_Fine_. But I swear, if I get spat on, I will throw you to the lions.'

'Will do.'

Thalia actually ended up having fun, petting the giraffes and squealing (though she'd never admit it) when they poked out their tongues to pry a carrot piece off the stick she was using to feed them. A half hour later, she and Nico emerged from the giraffe enclosure, licking at strawberry ice cream cones.

'Well?' Nico said, looking smug.

'It wasn't as bad as I thought,' Thalia admitted grudgingly, wiping at the ice cream running down her fingers.

'Told you so!' Nico said triumphantly. He decided not to tell Thalia about the glob of chewed-up carrot on her backpack.

* * *

><p><strong>Pudding <strong>

Travis Stoll banged the side of Thalia's tree with the hilt of the sword. Peleus didn't so much as stir. 'Alright, settle down!' he yelled at the bustling crowd of demigods. 'We got a good stash this week. First of all …'

He plunged his arm into the nondescript yellow sack he was holding. Connor provided a drum roll by banging a pair of sai swords against the tree as Travis pulled out a pudding cup.

'Chocolate pudding!' he announced. 'One cup of chocolate pudding! Bids, anyone!'

Thalia wrestled her way to the front of the crowd and instantly all the other bidders put their coins away dejectedly. Everyone knew that if Thalia was bidding on something, everyone else should just back down.

'One drachma!' she called.

'One drachma for the lovely lady in purple!' Travis announced, ignoring Thalia's poisonous glare. 'Going, going, g –'

'Two drachmas!' a voice called. Thalia narrowed her eyes and turned to face her competitor. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, but it wasn't Moses who stepped through – it was Nico.

Thalia groaned inwardly. Of course it would be Nico; he had a borderline-obsession with chocolate, especially chocolate pudding. He would probably do anything for it (although he drew the line at the murder of small innocent animals).

All the heads swiveled to look at Thalia. 'Three drachmas,' she said, and everyone turned to look at Nico eagerly, like they were witnessing a tennis match.

'_Five _drachmas,' he retorted. Whispers ran through the crowd.

'Seven drachmas,' Thalia called. She sincerely hoped that Nico wouldn't bid higher than that, because she only had seven drachmas on her at the moment.

'Ten drachmas!' Nico hooted triumphantly. He could practically smell defeat.

'Going … going …' Thalia huffed and stomped away. 'Gone, to the intimidating gentleman!' Travis cried dramatically. He tossed Nico the pudding cup, before pulling a pack of Twizzlers out of the bag.

A couple of minutes later, Nico caught up with Thalia. He handed her a plastic spoon, which she just looked at.

'And what's this for?' she asked.

'We're gonna share,' Nico declared, peeling the lid off the pudding cup. When Thalia gave him a suspicious look, Nico shrugged.

'Sharing's better than having to suffer your death glares all week.'

'I taught you well.'

* * *

><p><strong>Vice<strong>

The first time Thalia ever saw Nico do it was that time when Rachel had roped him into playing Monopoly with her and Thalia. As Rachel contemplated how to throw the dice, Nico bit his lip nervously and began to crack his knuckles.

He only got as far as his pointer finger because Thalia grabbed his hands. "Stop that, you idiot!" she ordered. "Do you want your knuckles to inflate and go knobbly?"

"Yeah! You'll never be able to wear rings!" Rachel added. When the other two looked at her in confusion, she said, "that's what my mom always used to tell me."

Thalia shook her head in amusement, then turned back to Nico. "Listen, Corpse Breath, if I catch you doing that again, you _will_ suffer the consequences."

"Geez, okay!" Nico raised his hands in surrender. "What crawled up your butt and died?"

Thalia promptly kicked him in the shin and they resumed their game as if nothing unusual had happened.

A couple of days later, Nico showed up at the Big House for breakfast with a resigned expression on his face and one of his hands wrapped up tightly in a bundle of gauze.

Percy nodded towards his injured hand. "What happened to you?" he asked.

Nico sighed. "Thalia broke my knuckles," he mumbled.

Percy almost choked on his cereal. "Why?"

Nico looked at Percy's stubby fingernails. "All I'm saying is, you better not bite your nails around her."

* * *

><p><strong>Frog<strong>

Nico knew that there had always been a feud between Thalia and the Hecate girls; something that had started one day when Thalia had made an offhand comment about how her sweater was so much more punk-like than Lou Ellen's, and the war had never ended. He also knew that children of Hecate and children of Zeus had extremely short fuses and _some_one was going to blow soon.

Which is why he wasn't really surprised when he heard Lou Ellen and Thalia screaming at each other. He _was _a tad surprised, however, when there was a bright burst of color from Lou Ellen's hands and in Thalia's place sat a small, green frog.

The surrounding campers began to squeal in pleasure as Thalia-the-frog began to croak madly and hop around in circles. Nico elbowed his way through the crowd and scooped Thalia up in his cupped palm before anyone could accidentally squash her.

He threw Lou Ellen a dark look. 'Reverse it,' he snapped. '_Now._' And then to all the other campers, 'Well, piss off! Nothing to see here!'

The crowd dispersed quickly (but not without unhappy grumbles) until there was just Nico, the Thalia-frog in his hands and a scared-looking Lou Ellen.

'Well, _you_ have to reverse it,' she said, tugging nervously at her braid. 'You, um, have to kiss her. To turn her back.'

'Seriously? Can you _get _any more unoriginal?' Nico complained.

The sky rumbled, the clouds darkening. 'Mom's rules, not mine,' Lou Ellen said, and then walked away with a helpless shrug.

Thalia gave a mournful ribbit and gave Nico a mournful look. The bulging eyes made it more creepy than sad.

Nico sighed. 'Fine,' he muttered. 'Honestly, the things I do for you …' Wrinkling his nose, he pecked Thalia's froggy lips. There was another burst of color, and suddenly he was holding Thalia bridal-style. He promptly dropped her and wiped his lips, wincing.

'I would say thank you, but your oh-so-chivalrous dropping canceled it out,' Thalia said, getting up and brushing herself down.

Nico glowered at her. 'I had to kiss a _frog_!'

'Yeah, well, I had to kiss a carcass.'

'Should've seen that coming, really.'

* * *

><p><strong>Ice<strong>

'I can't believe I have to wear five pairs of socks,' Thalia complained, lacing up the heavy ice-skating shoes.

'Your toes will fall off otherwise,' Nico supplied, twisting his ankle to see how well the shoes fit.

'Why are we even here?' Thalia asked grouchily.

'So Percy can show off his crazy ice-skating skills and make everybody else look like primates,' Nico said dryly, nodding to where Percy was doing backward figure-8s on the ice rink.

'That is so unfair!' Thalia whined. 'He's good with ice because technically it's a form of water, but I have no control over electricity that runs through wires!'

Nico rolled his eyes. 'Stop being such a martyr,' he chided her. 'C'mon, I'm not going out there alone.'

Thalia sighed and stood up, nearly falling over in the ridiculously large shoes, and plodded towards the ice rink. As soon as she took a tentative step onto the ice, her legs flailed out from beneath her and she would have cracked her skull open if she wasn't holding onto the railing for dear life.

Nico was clutching his stomach and shaking with laughter as Thalia scrabbled at the ice, attempting to get up. 'This is not funny!' she yelled. 'Get over here and help me, you jerk!'

Wiping away tears of amusement, Nico took a few wobbly steps onto the smooth surface of the rink and pulled Thalia to her feet. She instantly fled onto solid ground, yanking the shoes off as she stormed towards the exit. Nico was still chuckling silently.

Thalia rubbed her temples. That was the last time she would ever believe Percy when he said something would be fun.

* * *

><p><strong>Measure<strong>

'So if we have two liters and two in each bottle, the geyser should spray about 6 to 8 feet,' Nico concluded, turning his computer off.

Thalia grinned wickedly. 'Perfect,' she said, tossing Nico two 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and a pack of Mentos. 'We've got some revenge to carry out.'

April 1st was widely known as April Fool's Day, but in Camp Half-Blood, April was pretty much April Fool's Month. Prank-wise, Hermes was in the lead (as usual), with Ares as a close second. Nobody had really expected Demeter to join in, since they hated having pranks played on them, but just last week they had turned Nico's cabin into a Barbie paradise. There was a giant Barbie townhouse right in the middle of the cabin, surrounded by all sorts of different versions of the doll (vet Barbie, summer Barbie, nurse Barbie, etc) with their matching houses and accessories. They had also painted the walls pink for effect. Nico and Thalia had teamed up together (they were only 2 people, but they came up with such good pranks that they counted for about 15 people) and now they were about to get revenge.

They were outside the Demeter cabin with a bottle of Diet Coke in each hand. The bottles were aimed for the roof of the cabin, which was decorated with all sorts of rare tropical flowers and plants.

'Ready … set … _go_!' Thalia whispered, and they each popped a mint-flavored Mento into their bottles. Instantly a spray of soda erupted from the bottles, dousing the plants. When the bottles were empty, the two ran back to their respective cabins, consumed with evil laughter.

The next morning, they were both awoken by a shrill scream that could only belong to Katie Gardner as she saw the damage they'd done to her precious plants.

All in a day's work for them.

* * *

><p><strong>There we go! :D As usual, please share your thoughts about this - if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, and of course I'd love to know which was your favorite little drabble! Also thank you so much to everyone who reviewedfavorited/alerted this - I smile like a madwoman every time I get an email from FFN. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello, friends! I'm aware that this hasn't been updated in a month, but I'm bending over backwards to keep up with school, which had suddenly decided to be relentless. I'll try to update as much as I can.**

**This chapter's a little shorter and kind of ... meh, but think of it as something to tide you over till the next one, which will hopefully be longer and less meh. **

**Onwards, good sirs!**

* * *

><p><strong>Quibbling<strong>

Even Percy himself had to admit that he was a complete moron at times. Most of the time, in fact. However, one lesson that he simply would _not_ learn was not to ask Thalia and Nico to eat breakfast with him at the lonely Poseidon table.

'Keep your plate on your side!' Nico said loudly, shoving Thalia's loaded plate away from him.

'This _is_ my side, you jerk! Besides, you're one to speak!' Thalia snapped, pushing Nico's goblet away a little harder than intended. It toppled, splashing orange juice all over Nico's lap.

Instantly Nico reached out and tipped half of Thalia's plate of eggs onto her shirt. 'There!' he said childishly, jumping back as Thalia took a swipe at him with her knife.

'Okay, break it up!' Percy interjected, forcing himself between the two demigods. They completely ignored him, choosing instead to glare at each other over his head.

Percy sighed in exasperation. 'Geez, if you two have such a huge problem with personal space, why don't you just _move_? You have a whole empty table, if you haven't noticed.'

Thalia looked at him like he was mental. 'Yes,' she said, 'but where's the fun in that?'

Percy just moved to the Hermes table. It was much easier that way, even if none of them kept their plates on their sides.

* * *

><p><strong>Dysphoria<strong>

'Would you stop fidgeting?' Thalia hissed, whacking Nico and almost knocking over the popcorn. 'This is the best part!'

'But she's about to go into the house!' Nico whispered. 'The house where her whole family - not to mention her babysitter and elementary school teacher - were murdered! Is she _insane_?'

'That doesn't explain why you're twitching!'

'I'm "twitching" in anticipation of the - oh, there it is,' Nico finished lamely as the heroine was brutally killed by a man with a saw.

Two identical screams came from the chairs next to Nico. He threw the occupants a dirty look. 'Oh, man up!' he said in disgust.

Connor and Travis were clutching each other, both trembling in fear with wide eyes. However, that didn't stop them from their usual ways.

'Bet you five drachmas he buries her in the garden,' Travis piped up.

'Bet you five drachmas he doesn't bury her at all,' Connor countered.

Thalia sighed. 'Honestly, I can't believe those two.'

'Yeah, well,' Nico said, 'that's probably what people say about us.'

* * *

><p><strong>Womenfolk<strong>

Nico probably had the worst luck out of everyone at camp, so it only made sense that Annabeth would decide to whisk Thalia away for a "girls' night" on the day he and Thalia were going to go terrorize some mortals with Mrs O'Leary.

His day wasn't exactly being made brighter by the fact that Percy, Travis and Connor had decided to treat him to a "guys' night".

And what was with that expression anyway? It was _noon_.

Anyway, guys' night apparently consisted of the four boys lounging around in Nico's cabin while Percy downed can after can of Coke to yells of 'CHUG CHUG CHUG' from the twins.

When Percy put the empty six-pack case over his head and started to do a rain dance, Nico decided he'd had enough.

'I don't know about you guys, but I've had a great time! Thanks! Bye!' Nico called, approaching the door speedily. Percy caught him and dragged him back to his bed.

'Not so fast, buster,' Percy said, motioning for the twins to come over. 'There was actually a purpose to this gathering, you know.'

'Was there? Unless it was watching you dump a ton of sugar down your gob, then I have yet to discover it,' Nico said acidly.

'Geez, okay. This is an Thaliavention.'

'A what?'

'We're intervening in your love life,' Connor explained. 'Or lack thereof.'

'You need to make a move on Thalia,' Travis added.

_'What_?' Nico spluttered. 'What makes you think I have any intention of "making a move" on Thalia?'

'Well,' Percy began, counting off on his fingers, 'you two are always secretly making heart eyes at each other, you fight like a married couple, you spend every waking second together, not to mention your mutual fascination with death -'

'All right, all right!' Nico cut it. 'I get it. But what if she doesn't ... feel the same?'

Connor facepalmed and Travis began banging his head against the wall.

'Were you listening to a word I just said?' Percy exclaimed. 'Of course she feels the same, you dope. In fact, right at this instant, Annabeth's probably yelling at her for being so oblivious!'

Nico gaped at him. 'Wait ... you planned this?'

'Well, of course,' Percy scoffed.

'Then why are _they_ here?' Nico asked, gesturing to the Stoll twins (who were throwing Nico's Stygian iron sword to each other).

'Oh, they were just bored,' Percy said with a shrug.

'Now that that's cleared up, everyone get out,' Nico ordered. Eventually the three other guys cleared out (under the threat of Nico's father's wrath) with much grumbling, leaving Nico to think about exactly he was going to carry this out.

About two hours later, Annabeth and Thalia returned to camp on two pegasi. Nico was sort of waiting for them at the stables, and he ran up to Thalia as soon as she stepped off her pegasus.

'Hey,' she greeted him, waving her fingers.

'Hi,' he said, suddenly nervous. 'Thalia, I wanted to ask you ... would you wanna -'

'Tomorrow at eight,' she interrupted. 'Pick me up at Annabeth's cabin. Be sure to rent a car. We'll be going out to dinner, and you can take me to see the Russian ballet at the theater later.' She then turned to Annabeth with an expectant look on her face.

'Perfect,' Annabeth assured her, and with that, Thalia started the walk back to her cabin. Nico just stared, dumbfounded, after her.

'What just happened?' he asked dazedly.

'The product of a girls' night with me happened,' Annabeth said proudly, walking off as well.

About halfway to her cabin, Annabeth yelled over her shoulder, 'Wear a suit, don't take her to have Thai food and bring her back by eleven!'

* * *

><p><strong>Lost<strong>

'Percy, face it, we're lost,' Annabeth declared, throwing the map down in frustration.

Percy pulled over on the side of the little dirt path they were currently driving on. 'We're not lost, okay?' he lied. 'Just show me where we are on the map.'

'Oh, I'd say somewhere about ... _here_,' Annabeth said, jabbing Antarctica on the map with her finger.

'Don't overreact,' Percy huffed. 'We'll make it out of here. Eventually.' With that, he started the engine up again and continued driving, a clear signal that the conversation was over. Instead of talking to him, Annabeth began to rant to no one in particular.

'I told you to get a GPS like everyone else in New York,' she muttered, 'but _no_, you insist on keeping this beat-up old car that can't handle any form of new technology. Seriously, it's been around since my mother was born. And it has _hoofprints_ on the hood! Honestly, I have a right mind to -'

Thankfully Percy didn't get to hear what Annabeth was planning on doing because right then a hologram-like image appeared in front of them and Percy had to swerve to avoid hitting it.

'You two are such jerks!' he yelled at the Iris message, where Nico and Thalia were laughing their butts off.

'Well, we were going to come over and help you out,' Nico started.

'He takes it back,' Annabeth cut in quickly. 'Please, for the love of the gods, come pick us up. And tell Percy how much of an ass he is.'

'You've been telling me for the past half hour,' Percy protested.

'Yeah, well, it never seems to get through.

* * *

><p><strong>... Yep. Remember, reviews make me weep with joy.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: ...Hello? Okay, if anyone's still paying attention to this story, I just want to say how sorry I am for abandoning it. I know I haven't updated in almost a year and I literally cannot apologize enough, but I forgot my FFN password (d'oh) and haven't remembered it since yesterday, and I've been writing rabidly all day to work this chapter out, so have this as a form of apology!**

**NOTE: As I may have mentioned before, most of these little drabbles aren't related, and some are from totally different universes (like the last one of this chapter), so have that in mind as not to get confused.**

* * *

><p><strong>Scarecrow<strong>

Sheathing her sword in its hilt, Thalia squinted at the bright sunlight as she exited the sword-fighting arena, glad to be done with her grueling weekly session. She shucked off her armor, dumping it in the basket placed outside the door, and scanned the camp. It was late spring, and the strawberry fields were bursting with fruit, thanks to the helpful Demeter children.

Amidst all the red strawberries, a flash of black caught her eye. There was a figure sitting alone in the field. Judging by the gloomy attire, it was none other than Nico di Angelo.

Her interest piqued, she began to walk towards him. As she neared, she saw he was sitting in a circle of wilted grass, dealing out a pack of cards in front of him. He was scowling at the cards as if they'd personally offended him.

'Hey,' she called out. Nico looked up and glared at her. She rolled her eyes and sat down beside him. He refused to acknowledge her further, continuing to deal the cards out.

'What's the matter?' asked Thalia. 'You look even sulkier than usual, and that's saying a lot.'

Nico gave a deep, suffering sigh. 'Chiron's making me sit out here because I act as a natural repellent to any creatures that might want to eat the strawberries,' he said in a flat voice. 'His words, not mine.'

Thalia immediately burst into laughter, practically falling into Nico's lap with the force of her laughs. Nico shoved her off. 'It isn't funny!' he snapped, crossing his arms.

'Yes, it is,' she giggled, dramatically wiping an invisible tear from her eye. 'You're never going to live this down.'

'Sometimes I wonder why I'm still friends with you,' Nico lamented.

'Because nobody else would sit here and repel creatures with you,' Thalia countered, picking up all the cards. 'C'mon, let's play Go Fish.'

* * *

><p><strong>Hunt<strong>

Thalia opened her door just a tiny crack. Seeing it was only Nico, she ushered him in quickly before slamming the door and fastening all three bolts. Nico raised an eyebrow as she checked that the door was locked before turning to him.

'Any particular reason you've locked yourself in your cabin and refuse to come out?' he asked.

'The Hunters,' Thalia hissed, her eyes comically wide.

'I don't like them much either, but …'

Thalia ran a hand through her hair. By the way it was sticking up, Nico guessed she'd been doing that for a while. 'I have … a bad history with the Hunters,' she admitted. 'But I don't wanna talk about it.'

'Okay, now I have to know,' Nico said.

'No!'

'Fine. I can always just ask Percy …'

Thalia glowered at him. 'Damn you, di Angelo.'

Nico just raised his eyebrows.

'_Fine_,' she huffed. 'A couple years back, I joined the Hunters to prevent myself from turning 16 so that Percy could be the demigod in The Great Prophecy, but I soon realized it was the biggest mistake I could ever make and so I quit. Now they kind of hate me and want to destroy me so I'm avoiding them. Happy?'

Nico merely said, 'How do you _quit_ the Hunters?'

'I had to kiss Percy,' Thalia said with a shudder.

Nico's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak but Thalia quickly cut him off; 'If you want the use of all your limbs you'll keep quiet.'

With a great effort, Nico swallowed what he was going to say and instead said, 'If you avoid them, it means they've won. What you _should_ be doing is training, because we are going to kick their asses at Capture the Flag.'

Thalia smiled. 'Okay then, Little Mr. Optimism, let's talk battle strategies.'

(Of course, they lost miserably to the Hunters, but really, who expected differently?)

* * *

><p><strong>Spoon<strong>

'Okay, whose idea was it to go camping again? Because I am seriously ready to kick them right into Tartarus.'

Nico could barely speak because of the way his teeth were chattering. He and Thalia were holed up in a tiny tent in some freezing forest that they hadn't bothered learning the name of. Annabeth and Percy had decided they wanted to go camping and had dragged Nico and Thalia along with them, ignoring the complaints and protests. Of course, that was the exact night that the weather decided to take a nosedive, bringing on harsh, bitter winds that the flimsy tents were no match for.

'I'm with you, once I can get my feet to move again,' Thalia replied, tugging her padded jacket tighter around herself. It made absolutely no difference.

'How come Annabeth and Percy haven't made a single sound?' Nico whined, hugging his middle. 'Their tent is as thin as ours.'

'It's probably because they're cuddling or something,' Thalia said, her nose wrinkling in distaste. 'How come Annabeth gets to cuddle? She's so cold-blooded she shouldn't even need the extra warmth.'

Nico snorted, then went quiet. 'You know, that idea has something to it,' he remarked after a period of silence.

'What idea?'

'You know … cuddling.'

Thalia threw him a look. 'You're not serious.'

'We're both on the way to becoming human popsicles,' Nico argued. 'There's no harm in trying. Unless, of course, you want your toes to go black and fall off …'

Thalia sighed. 'Fine,' she said.

'Dibs on big spoon!'

'Hey, that's not fair!'

'You kick in your sleep and I'd rather not wake up with bruised ribs!'

Thalia rolled her eyes. 'Just get over here, you brat.'

After much arguing and complaining and shoving, they finally settled into a comfortable position: Nico's chest against Thalia's back and an arm slung around her waist. It didn't really make them any warmer, but it felt nice.

'You know, they say you heat up faster if you take your clothes off …'

'_Thalia_ –'

'Okay, okay. Shutting up.'

* * *

><p><strong>Store<strong>

_Crash._

'Dammit, Stoll! Could you _be _any louder?'

'Sorry, chief!'

Thalia rubbed her temples and motioned for Travis to continue picking the lock of the camp store's door. She and Nico had been planning to break in for a week, but Travis was the only one who could unlock the door, so they had to bring him along. Unfortunately, the Stoll brothers came in a package – you want one, you get the other too. And, as Thalia had learned that night, Connor Stoll could _not _keep still.

'Connor!' Nico snapped as Connor tripped over yet another vine.

'Sorry, man! I can't see in the dark!'

'Then stop moving!'

'Dude, I have ADHD.'

'You're about to have my fist up your –'

'We're in!' Travis interrupted, tossing Thalia's hairpin back to her and opening the door. The four demigods walked in cautiously, Connor nearly tripping over the large brown sack he was carrying. Travis flicked on the light.

'Holy Hephaestus,' Nico breathed, overwhelmed by the endless shelves stocked with every kind of sugary snack one could imagine – a demigod's kryptonite.

'Okay, grab whatever you can, but not too much of one thing, or Chiron will get suspicious,' Thalia ordered, but the Stolls were already sweeping whatever they could into the bag.

'It's been so long,' Travis sighed, practically inhaling a Mars Bar.

'Not on the job, Travis!' Thalia hissed, throwing a pack of gummy bears to Nico.

'Hey, what about this?' Connor said, reaching out for a bottle of Diet Coke.

'_No_!' all three shouted, but it was too late – Connor's fingers closed around the drink, and instantly four grapevines burst from the ground and wrapped around his wrists and ankles, dragging him to the ground. An alarm began to blare as more plants magically grew and wrapped around him, encasing him in a sort of cocoon.

'Travis!' Connor shrieked hysterically. Nico and Thalia were already sprinting through the door.

'Sorry, bro!' Travis called, following his friends, only to bump into a tall, solid body.

'Travis and Connor Stoll,' Chiron sighed. 'I should have known.'

'But – but Thalia! And Nico!' Travis stammered, peering over Chiron's shoulder. Sure enough, they were nowhere to be seen.

'Both of you are on kitchen duty for a week,' he told Travis, handing him a pair of garden shears. 'Now go free your brother.'

Behind the Aphrodite cabin, Nico and Thalia were sharing a bag of popcorn and laughing at their friends' misfortune.

* * *

><p><strong>Formal<strong>

'I _hate_ parties,' Thalia complained, throwing herself onto a chair at the small table Nico was sitting at. He was making the flowers in the fancy vase wilt.

'Tell me about it. I especially hate fancy events,' he grumbled, tugging at his tie. 'This suit feels like it's made of cardboard.'

'It can't be any worse than this dress,' Thalia said, glaring in disgust at the midnight-blue peplum skirt dress. 'I'd rather wear a burlap sack than this monstrosity.'

Nico sighed deeply, crossing his arms on the table and resting his chin on them. 'Why are we even here?' he asked. 'Rachel's dad isn't really a big fan of demigods.'

'Well, judging by how viciously Annabeth was shoving dresses at me last week, I'd say she's pretty pissed that Rachel had the nerve to invite Percy in the first place,' Thalia explained. 'She just had to come along as well to stake her claim on Percy.'

'That still doesn't explain why we're here,' Nico countered.

'Probably so she can come rant at us about how much she hates Rachel when Percy's distracted by the food,' Thalia said. 'Look, here she comes now.'

Sure enough, Annabeth was approaching them, her face crimson with rage. A quick sweep of the room confirmed that Percy was piling mini-quiches on his plate at the buffet table.

'Damn,' Nico muttered under his breath, before grabbing Thalia's wrist and hauling her onto the floor.

'What are you doing?!' she exclaimed.

'_We_ are dancing,' he said, placing Thalia's hand on his shoulder and his own on her waist. 'Annabeth can't exactly come whine at us if we're surrounded by a bunch of rich people, can she?'

'But I can't dance,' Thalia said in a panicked whisper.

'It doesn't look that hard,' Nico reasoned, taking Thalia's free hand in his own. 'Everyone else is just kind of swaying.'

Thalia rolled her eyes. 'Whatever,' she sighed, as Nico began to lead her in a circle. 'Did I mention that I hate parties?'

'Yup, but then again, that can never be said enough.'

Thalia laughed and allowed Nico to twirl her around.

Meanwhile, from their abandoned table, Annabeth smiled at the dancing couple. Those two had to be the most oblivious people in the world.

* * *

><p><strong>Ears<strong>

Thalia barged into Nico's cabin, not bothering to shut the door behind her, and plucked Nico's Greek Literacy book from his hands, flinging it across the room. Her face was so pale that her freckles stood out, which was definitely a bad sign – it only happened when she was in the darkest of rages.

'Nico, grab something sharp,' she demanded.

'Hi to you too,' Nico said.

'Something sharp,' she repeated.

Nico began to root around in his beside table drawer to placate her. 'Why exactly do you want something sharp? It sounds like I should be worried.'

'Lou Ellen,' Thalia snarled.

'Uh oh,' Nico said. Thalia and Lou Ellen, the leader of the Hecate cabin, had been having a widely-known feud since Thalia had joined CampHalf-Blood. Nobody knew how it started, but now they were sworn enemies, constantly looking for ways to one-up the other.

'All during weapon-making, all she could do was brag about her new eyebrow piercing,' Thalia fumed. 'It isn't even cool, she looks like a total tramp! Anyways, she kept asking why I didn't even have my ears pierced, so I said that I could any time, and she challenged me to come to breakfast tomorrow with my ears pierced, so I'm doing it.'

Unfortunately, Nico found an old iron nail at that exact point, and Thalia snatched it out of his hands, inspecting it in the dim light.

'Thalia, are you crazy?!' he exclaimed, snatching it back. 'That thing's been sitting there since before I moved in here. It's all rusty and will probably make your ear fall off or something.'

'Are you going to help or not?' Thalia said impatiently.

'You don't have to pierce your ears to prove anything to Lou Ellen,' he said gently. 'She's just a tramp, remember?'

'Fine. I'll go ask someone from Aphrodite to help,' said Thalia decisively, storming out of the cabin. Nico sighed, picking up his abandoned textbook. He knew it was pointless to try and stop Thalia if she was this determined.

The next morning, Thalia slid into her seat next to Nico at the breakfast table. He took one look at her and nearly choked on his orange juice. Sure enough, Thalia's ears were pierced, and dangling from the lobes were two gem-covered pink hoops.

'Oh dear gods,' he gasped, trying to contain laughter.

Thalia's head thudded against the table. 'I've been trying to get them out all night,' she groaned. 'I think those lunatics surgically implanted them there or something. What was I _thinking_?!'

'Hey, look on the bright side,' Nico grinned. 'Lou Ellen's lame old eyebrow piercing will never be as pink or sparkly as yours.'

'I'm thrilled,' said Thalia dryly, spooning cereal into her mouth.

They were both quiet for a couple of minutes, and then;

'So Lou Ellen says she has this new tattoo …'

* * *

><p><strong>Café<strong>

'Grande drip,' Nico said to the cashier, digging frantically in his messenger bag for his wallet.

'That'll be $2.85,' said the woman, way too cheerful for 8 am on a Monday.

Nico stared at the notes and coins in his wallet, cursing his dyslexia as the numbers swam before him. Eventually he just threw down a couple of bills. 'Keep the change,' he said.

'How generous of you,' gushed the cashier. Much too late, Nico realized that he had given her two ten-dollar notes. He just sighed and stared at his watch, his heart sinking as he realized that he only had five minutes to get to his first class.

Nico had taken leave from Camp Half-Blood for a year to find out what real life was like. Unfortunately, that meant going to college and working two jobs to pay rent. It was hard, but surprisingly enjoyable. It was nice to be able to see what life would be like if his father wasn't the king of the Underworld.

Finally he got his coffee. Grabbing it off the counter along with a couple of napkins, he turned around and dashed for the door. Apparently, it just wasn't his day, because he hadn't taken two steps before he bumped into someone, the lid of his coffee flying off and spilling all over them.

'Gods – I'm so sorry!' he gasped. He saw that he had bumped into a woman, and while her clothes were saved, his coffee had drenched a pile of notebooks and sketchbooks she'd been holding. Nico dropped to his knees and attempted to mop up the brown pools of liquid, but the damage had already been done.

'Oh, no!' the woman groaned, dropping beside him and quickly rifling through the books. Nico saw that they were full of drawings of clothing. 'My designs!'

'I am _so_ sorry,' Nico repeated. 'I'm not always this clumsy, I swear.'

The woman sighed, collecting her ruined things and rising to her feet. Nico stood up as well, looking at her properly for the first time. She was a good foot shorter than him, with a spiky shoulder-length hair cut and startling blue eyes.

'It's all right,' she assured him. 'I wasn't looking where I was going, anyway.'

'It was my fault,' Nico said miserably, running a hand through his hair. 'Is there anything I can do for you?'

'Well …' Her eyes skimmed over him a couple times. 'The alternative to handing in the drawings is the clothes themselves … How would you like to model for me?'

'Sure,' Nico said with a rush of relief. 'I'm Nico.' He held out a hand.

'Thalia,' said the woman, gripping his hand and shaking it firmly. 'Say, Nico, do you prefer boxers or briefs?'

* * *

><p><strong>There you have it, my friends. I cannot tell you how much fun writing this chapter was. Anyways, I would love to hear reviews from you guys, even if you're just yelling at me over how long I've been gone.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello again! This chapter is a little shorter than the others but I wanted to get it out today as a sort of apology for being such a sucky updater. **

**REMINDER: These drabbles are mostly all from different universes and they definitely aren't in chronological order. I know I've said this before, but I would hate for anyone to get confused, especially in this chapter since one of them is about their first meeting.**

**A lovely reviewer alerted me that some of these drabbles sound similar to other stories. I just want to say that I have definitely not stolen any ideas from other authors because I know firsthand how terrible it feels and I would never do that to someone, so I apologize of some of these seem familiar - it's probably due to my lack of creativity.**

**Anyways, enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Lipstick<strong>

Nico and Thalia fought all the time, but the thing they argued the most about was Thalia's lipstick. Percy was forever listening to Nico comment on how gross black lipstick was, and Thalia retaliating that it was _fashionable_ and anyway Nico had a primitive boy mind so he'd never understand, etc.

At that moment, however, Percy's cabin was bicker-free. He and Annabeth were both cramming for their tests the upcoming week and they had agreed to meet Nico and Thalia at the cabin so they could all study together. The latter had failed to show.

'If I read one more word of battle strategy, I'm gonna flip,' Percy announced. 'I can't study anymore!'

Annabeth, who was typing an essay on Daedalus's laptop, looked up and raised her eyebrows. 'That was kind of the whole point of holding this study session,' she reminded him.

'Well, yeah, but that's why I told Nico and Thalia to come – with all their arguing, we couldn't focus on studying if we tried,' Percy explained. 'Where _are_ they, anyway?'

As if on cue, Nico breezed through the door. 'Hi, guys,' he said nonchalantly, sitting down on Percy's bed next to Annabeth. 'What did I miss?'

'Nothing,' Percy sighed. 'Absolutely nothing. Where's Thalia?'

'Beats me,' Nico said.

Percy shrugged and went back to his book, but Annabeth continued to stare at Nico, eyes narrowed, until he said, 'What?'

'Something smells fishy,' she said.

'We're in the Poseidon cabin,' Percy said.

Annabeth ignored him as comprehension dawned on her face. 'Nico, your lips are looking surprisingly dark today,' she said innocently.

'I don't know what you mean,' Nico stammered, reaching up to wipe his mouth. Annabeth gripped his wrist.

'In fact, it looks like you're wearing some of Thalia's lipstick that you hate so much,' she continued. Nico's mouth was opening and closing wordlessly. By now, Percy had put down his book and was watching with interest.

The door opened again and Thalia walked in, hurriedly smoothing down her hair. 'Hi,' she said breathlessly.

'Her lipstick's smudged!' Percy gasped dramatically.

'Good job, Percy,' Annabeth said, nodding towards him, before turning back to Nico and Thalia, both looking abashed. 'Is there something you two want to tell us?' she said, folding her arms.

'We've kind of been sneaking around for a couple weeks,' Nico mumbled.

'Because we knew you'd gloat for ages if you found out,' Thalia hastily said to Annabeth. 'I mean, we know you're always telling Percy how good a couple we'd make, and he told us about your bet on whether we'd get together or not …'

Annabeth glared at Percy, who steadily avoided her gaze.

'Well, you guys were right,' Annabeth said. 'I _will_ gloat for ages, but after we're done studying. Now sit down, we're already behind schedule.'

Thalia and Nico complied, each taking out their separate studying tools.

'Oh, and Percy?' Annabeth said. 'They got together before Christmas, so you owe me ten drachmas.'

* * *

><p><strong>Library<strong>

Despite the fact that they'd never met, Nico knew of Thalia Grace. Percy and Annabeth would occasionally mention her when talking about old memories, and everyone knew that she was the daughter of Zeus and was once a tree at the camp. However, all that information never could have prepared him for actually meeting her.

At breakfast, Connor Stoll had burst into the dining pavilion, red-faced and out of breath. 'Thalia's here!' he announced once everyone was looking at him. 'She quit the Hunters and now she's back at camp!'

Instantly, pandemonium broke out amongst the campers. People were calling to one another across the tables, some were cheering, some were booing, and Percy and Annabeth immediately ran out to look for her. Nico, feeling rather bewildered by all the chaos, slipped out of the hall and headed for the library.

Despite his ADHD, Nico had always liked to read. The camp's small library provided a quiet place to sit and think as well as plenty of books he could get lost in. He sat at his usual table next to the window with a view of the strawberry fields and began to read a book about Ancient Greek music.

About a half hour later, the strains of loud rock music reached Nico's ears. When he looked up, he saw that there was a girl sitting a few tables over from him. Her short black hair revealed that there were earphones planted firmly in her ears, so the music was probably coming from her. Nico stared at her, trying to figure out why she looked so familiar.

She turned her head and raised her eyebrows at Nico. 'Problem, kid?' she said loudly, plucking one earphone out. Everyone in the library looked at her in annoyance.

'While I'm a Green Day fan myself, I'm not sure the librarian will approve of your music taste,' Nico said in a considerably quieter tone, nodding towards the grumpy harpy sat behind the librarian's desk.

Her eyebrows shot up even further. 'A fellow nimrod,' she said with an approving nod, before grabbing a beat-up backpack and moving to Nico's table. She dropped into the seat beside him and held out a hand.

'I'm Thalia,' she said. Nico shook her outstretched hand, realizing that she looked familiar because of the descriptions of her he'd heard (Annabeth was forever wondering how Thalia managed to pull off such a "daring" haircut).

'Nico,' he said.

'Oh, _Nico_,' Thalia said. 'I've heard a lot about you from Percy and Annabeth.'

'Likewise,' he replied. 'Only good things, I hope.'

'Not at all. I hear you're quite the bad boy, always causing trouble.'

'Oh, sure. Since I'm a son of Hades, perhaps "raising hell" would be a more accurate description.'

Thalia grinned. 'Well, Nico, I think this could be the start of a wonderful friendship.'

* * *

><p><strong>Fireworks<strong>

'So, are you guys excited about the fireworks?' Thalia asked, spreading out her blanket on the grass.

It was the one-year anniversary of the Titan War, and Chiron had announced that there were going to be fireworks that night to celebrate. It was sunset and the whole camp was gathered around Zeus' Fist to lay down their blankets and claim the best spots. The Hermes kids were going around selling sparklers and glow-sticks for a drachma apiece. The air was buzzing with excitement and cheer.

'More like dreading them,' Percy sighed. 'Last time they totally exaggerated my part in the war and it was really embarrassing.'

'Does all his humbleness ever get annoying?' Thalia asked Annabeth.

'All the time,' replied Annabeth, ignoring Percy's protests.

'Don't get too worked up, Percy,' Nico cut in. 'I don't think there'll be too much of you tonight anyway.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Percy asked. Nico and Thalia shared a glance but said nothing.

'Oh, no,' Percy said. 'I know that look. It means you two are up to something. What's going on?'

'I don't know what you're talking about,' said Thalia curtly. 'Now shut up, the show's starting.'

The sky lit up with a bright explosion of white sparks to mark the beginning of the show and Percy reluctantly settled back against a tree and watched the sky.

However, instead of images of the battle, letters began to form in the sparks, swirling around and slowly creating words. Eventually, the campers could read the clear sentence in the sky: "_Happy One Year Anniversary Percy + Annabeth_"

Everyone began to cheer and more fireworks came up, blasts of color illuminating the camp.

'Did you guys do this?' Percy asked. He sounded half-touched, half-embarrassed, and fully bewildered.

'Yup,' Nico confirmed with a giant grin.

'We got Nyssa and Jake from Hephaestus to make the fireworks,' Thalia explained. 'Everyone was in on it, even Chiron.'

'Oh, you two,' Annabeth said fondly, her eyes suspiciously shiny.

'C'mon, Annabeth, don't blubber about it,' Nico groaned. 'You're like a leaky pipe, I swear.'

'You cried when we made you a birthday cake on your first year here, so you can shut up,' Annabeth teased, punching Nico on the arm and moving forward to hug Thalia. Before she pulled back, she whispered into Thalia's ear, 'I'll do something for you guys when it's your turn.'

Thalia shoved her shoulder. 'Shut up,' she muttered, not meeting Annabeth's eyes. The real Titan War fireworks show began then, so everyone moved back to their seats.

Thalia would brush off Annabeth's comment afterwards, but the blush remained on her cheeks for the rest of the night.

* * *

><p><strong>As always, please leave a review, it makes all the difference in the world! And if you do drop a comment, tell me which drabble was your favorite!<strong>

**Also, in case anyone was wondering, here's what I imagine Thalia's hair to look like: www . poptens wp-content/uploads/2012/06/The-Short-Spiky-Hair-Style . jpg (just take out the spaces because FFN doesn't post links.)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hi again! I just want to thank you all for your reviews - it warms my heart to know that people actually like this story. :)**

_**IMPORTANT**_**_ NOTICE_:** **I've created a tumblr account for my stories! You can find it at _pastelshadows_. I'll be posting my updates there as well, so go reblog/like them! There is also an ask box there for any questions people might have. :)**

**On with the chapter!**

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><p><strong>Tie<strong>

'Nico, if you don't hold still, I'm going to choke you,' Thalia warned.

'Is that a threat?' Nico asked.

'No, it's an inevitability,' Thalia replied, tossing the tie over the shoulder and selecting another one from the pile, wrapping it around Nico's neck.

'I really don't understand why it's taking so long to pick a tie,' Nico said impatiently, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

'Nico, this is the most important day of Annabeth and Percy's lives,' Thalia stressed. 'We need to look absolutely flawless.'

'It's only the wedding rehearsal,' Nico reminded her, closing his hands around her wrists. 'Can we take a break? Please? I don't think my neck can take any more fittings.'

'Fine,' Thalia concurred, sitting on the bed with a sigh and rubbing her eyes. 'I'm exhausted.'

Nico snorted and sat down beside her. 'If anyone's exhausted, it's me. If being someone's best man is hard, then being co-best-men with Grover Underwood is _impossible_. All he does is eat cans and baa about how nervous he is. It's enough to drive someone out of their minds.'

'Stop complaining,' Thalia said with a roll of her eyes, sifting through the tie pile for something eye-catching. 'You should see Annabeth. It's like she's carrying the world on her shoulders … again. Yesterday she nearly had a meltdown because one of the flowers in a centerpiece was missing a petal. _One. Petal._ And as the maid of honor, I had to console her and let her cry to me about how the wedding was ruined and she was never going to be happy again.'

Nico laughed. 'All right, you win,' he conceded. 'If I never have to deal with a crying Annabeth again it'll be too soon.'

'Meanwhile, Percy's probably playing video games with Tyson right now,' Thalia scoffed.

'Not likely. Tyson's scared to death of those walking mushrooms in Super Mario,' Nico said. As Thalia laughed, something in the basket caught his eye.

'Hey, what's this?' he asked, pulling a tie out of the pile. It was black silk, adorned with white cartoon skulls.

'Oh, I remember that,' Thalia said with a smile. 'I got it for your birthday as a joke when you were just thirteen and you swore you'd never wear a tie.'

'I'm eating my words right now,' Nico said. 'This has been the most horrendous day of my life.'

Thalia bit her lip, and then held the tie against the material of Nico's suit. 'You know, I think you should go with this one,' she said. 'It has character.'

'Cartoon skulls? What happened to looking flawless?' Nico asked, eyebrows raised.

Thalia fastened the tie around his neck and smiled. 'You always do.'

* * *

><p><strong>Reject<strong>

A favorite hobby for most of the demigods at the camp was skipping stones, mostly because the Long Island Sound was a few feet away and the kids liked sitting by the sea. Nico was the best at it (other than Percy, but he could control water so it was technically cheating), and everyone at camp knew that, especially Thalia, who watched many a stone-skipping competition between Nico and other campers.

Thalia also knew the outcome of these competitions – Nico always won. However, when Nico bet her five drachmas that he could throw a hundred consecutive stones and not miss a single one, she was too tempted to let it go, and so she agreed.

Nico was on his sixty-first stone now. Thalia sent a silent prayer to her father, but the stone bounced three times on the water before finally landing about two meters in.

'Why did I ever agree to this?' Thalia groaned.

'Because you can't give up a challenge,' Nico said with a smug grin, throwing yet another one perfectly.

'And you knew that, and you needed five drachmas, so you asked me,' Thalia sighed. 'I know, Nico, you've been bragging about it for a half hour. That was a rhetorical question.'

Nico stuck his tongue out at Thalia and picked up a round, flat stone that was almost a perfect circle. Just as he was about to throw it, his head jerked to the side and the stone flew out of his hand, plummeting straight into the water with a _plunk_.

'Who's laughing now?' Thalia crowed. 'Oh, sweet karma. Now you owe _me_ five drachmas and I know for a fact that you're broke! How do you feel now, loser?'

'Hide me!' Nico hissed desperately, scuttling around to sit on the other side of Thalia and sliding into the sand.

Thalia followed his gaze and saw a demigod approaching. Thanks to the blinding amount of colors she was wearing (neon yellow leggings, a green-and-orange striped top, and rainbow bangles all up her arms), Thalia recognized her as Ariel, a daughter of Iris.

'What's the matter?' Thalia asked.

'She has a massive crush on me and she won't leave me alone,' Nico groaned. 'She's asked me out seven times this month. I don't think she understands the meaning of the word no.'

'In that case, this should be fun,' Thalia grinned.

About ten feet away from them, Ariel abandoned all pretenses and rushed towards them, her bangles clinking together. She skidded to a stop right in front of Nico.

'Hi, Nico,' she said giddily. 'Hi, Thalia.'

Nico sprang to his feet, and Thalia followed suit. 'Hi, Ariel,' Nico said wearily.

'Hey,' Thalia said brightly. 'We were just talking about you!'

Ariel looked stunned. 'You were?!'

Nico glowered at Thalia. 'Uh, not really –'

'Anyways, I'm going to the movies with a bunch of friends this Saturday. Wanna come?' Ariel asked hopefully, fiddling with her blue hipster glasses.

'Uh, I – I don't really like going out into the mortal world – Big Three kids tend to attract lots of monsters,' Nico said hastily.

'Oh, that's okay. We can stay in,' Ariel said, looking pleased at the thought.

'Um, Ariel, the thing is …' Nico darted a quick look at Thalia. 'Thalia and I are dating,' he said quickly. Thalia's eyes widened and she opened her mouth, but closed it again as Nico stepped on her toes. Hard.

Ariel looked disappointed. 'Oh. Well, that's great, I guess,' she said, twirling a lock of hair around her shoulder. 'I should be going now.'

'Yeah, okay,' Nico said, looking relieved.

'Bye,' she said, before leaning in to whisper into Nico's ear. 'If ever you're single …' she trailed off suggestively before bounding back to the camp.

Nico let out a long exhale and sank to the ground again. 'If that doesn't do it, I don't know what will,' he said dramatically.

Thalia sat down beside him. 'You and Thalia are dating, huh?' she said, folding her arms.

'I really wanted to get rid of her, okay?' Nico said, sounding slightly desperate. 'She wrote a poem about me and left it in my cabin. I don't even want to know how she got in there.'

Thalia laughed. 'Poor you,' she teased. 'I feel even sorrier for you now, because I just remembered you owe me five drachmas.'

'No way! I got distracted by Ariel, it doesn't count!' Nico argued, and they fell back into their usual banter.

A week later, when news about them becoming a couple began to spread, they didn't mind at all, because by that time, it was true.

* * *

><p><strong>Jealousy<strong>

Thalia stepped off her canoe at the dock, tugging off her lifejacket and putting it back into the canoe. She was surprised to see Nico sitting against a tree near the dock. She walked over and sat beside him.

'Hey,' she said.

'Hi,' Nico muttered. Thalia realized he was glaring at something. She followed his gaze and saw a familiar sight: Will Solace strumming at his guitar, looking up every now and then to smile lazily at the gaggle of awed females that surrounded him.

'I'd hate to know what that poor guy did to deserve a look like that,' Thalia commented.

'Doesn't he ever annoy you?' Nico said, sounding frustrated as he ran a hand through his hair.

'Well, I've never talked to him,' Thalia said. 'Probably because his fans trample me every time I begin to get close.'

Nico pulled a face. 'Look at me, I'm Will Solace,' he mimicked in a deep drawl. 'I'm, like, totally rad with my washboard abs and totally dreamy eyes. My dad's the god of music, which means I'm, like, soulful and stuff.'

Thalia snorted. 'Washboard abs? Really?'

'It's kind of hard to miss all those girls' gossip round the campfire,' Nico said in his normal voice. 'I've overheard things I'd rather not speak of.'

Thalia smirked. 'I think you're just jealous of him,' she teased.

'Gross! No way!' Nico immediately said. 'Why would I be jealous of some blonde airhead? I don't know if you've noticed, but I can summon freaking skeletons. What's his power again? Oh yeah, healing wounds with the power of song. _Lame_.'

'Uh, if you hadn't noticed, he's kind of a chick magnet,' Thalia pointed out.

Nico folded his arms. 'I can get any girl any time I want,' he said defensively.

'Is that so?'

'Yes. Don't give me that look! Girls dig the dark and mysterious thing,' Nico insisted.

'Really? Because it seems to me that they're digging the tanned-surfer thing right now.'

Nico sighed and visibly deflated. 'Fine. Maybe I'm a little bit jealous. Whatever.'

'Aw, c'mon. You know he's just a blonde airhead,' Thalia said, repeating his words earlier.

'Yeah, whatever,' Nico said with a roll of his eyes, glaring at the Apollo cabin counselor again.

The next day, when Nico was done with his archery class, he found Thalia sitting at the tree. As he walked over to join her, he noticed that the group of girls was there was usual, minus Will Solace.

'Where's Jesse McCartney 2.0?' he asked Thalia when he reached her.

'Someone may have snipped all the strings off his precious guitar,' Thalia said innocently, standing up and brushing grass stains off her knees.

Nico stared at her. 'Why?'

'He is pretty annoying at times,' Thalia said. 'And … well, you don't deserve to be all gloomy because of him. Well, gloomier than usual.'

Nico grinned at her. 'Thanks,' he said, his voice genuinely touched.

Thalia nodded towards the girls. 'Don't look now, but they're all staring at you. I bet if you summon a cute little bird skeleton or something they'll all be drooling over you instead.'

Nico bit his lip and shook his head. 'Nah,' he said. 'I don't think I could handle all those girls. You're enough of a handful by yourself.'

Thalia laughed and looped her arm through his. 'C'mon, Mr. Dark and Mysterious, let's go hide Will's flute.'

* * *

><p><strong>There it is! As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. :)<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello everyone! This chapter took a little longer to crank out but here it is!**

**TUMBLR: ****pastelshadows**

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><p><strong>Note<strong>

Nico's cheeks were aching from smiling politely so much. He and Thalia had allowed Annabeth to drag them to some fancy party hosted by the architect company she worked for in the mortal world. Nico looked disdainfully at the plate of bite-sized pizza things in front of him. The only reason they'd agreed to come was for the free food. By "free food", Annabeth had apparently meant tiny little snacks that were about one twentieth of a mouthful and tasted like cardboard.

Just when Nico thought the night couldn't possibly get any worse, Annabeth had dumped him and Thalia at a table occupied by people telling the worst jokes ever. He would rather be having a tea party with Kronos than stay there any longer.

'Why did the architect stop designing cul-de-sacs?' asked a woman with so much Botox her forehead looked like a flat-screen TV. Before anyone could reply, she quickly said, 'because it was a _dead-end _job!'

Everyone at the table roared with laughter. Nico had to resist the urge to bang his head against the table. Repeatedly.

He suddenly felt a hand slip into his pocket. He glanced at Thalia. She was seemingly absorbed in what a fat drunk man was saying, but there was a tiny smile on her lips.

Nico reached into his pocket and pulled out what was inside. It was a roll of paper wrapped around a pencil stub. Curiously, Nico pulled the paper off and read the messy handwriting. _I'm going to kill Annabeth, _it read, accompanied by a caricature of Thalia strangling Annabeth, the latter's eyes bulging almost out of her head.

Nico bit his lip to muffle a laugh, and quickly scribbled on the other side, _Count me in. Pretty sure Percy wouldn't mind joining as well._ He placed the paper in Thalia's lap. Her eyes skimmed over it, then darted to where Percy was being lectured about columns by a man who looked alarmingly like the Grinch. Thalia snorted, quickly clapping a hand over her mouth.

The table went quiet. A woman who looked like a twig asked icily, 'Is something the matter?'

'Yes, actually, I think I've gotten indigestion from these rubbish mini-quiches,' Thalia instantly replied, with the same amount of frostiness in her voice. 'But then again, I hear you guys don't get paid too well, so it makes sense that the only food you can afford tastes like bird crap.'

Everyone around the table went quiet, just staring at her. Nico grabbed Thalia's arm and dragged her outside the room, where he proceeded to burst into laughter.

'Thalia, those guys are probably gonna fire Annabeth now!' he tried to scold her, but the fact that he was doubled over laughing kind of ruined it.

'It's her own fault for bringing us here,' Thalia shrugged. 'That chick was totally asking for it.'

Nico rolled his eyes fondly. 'You wanna blow this boring party?'

'Sure,' Thalia replied brightly. 'I'm pretty sure we can find a burger place nearby.'

Surprisingly, Annabeth didn't get fired. In fact, she was treated with a lot more respect around the workplace, because everybody was terrified she might sic her crazy friend on them if they didn't.

* * *

><p><strong>Graffiti<strong>

'Are you sure we should be doing this?' Nico said nervously as Thalia rummaged in her duffel bag. 'I mean, we almost got killed for trying to name this place The Poop Pile …'

'Relax, you wimp,' Thalia scoffed, pulling out a spray can of green Day-Glo paint and tossing it at Nico. 'Zeus is my dad; he can't exactly fry me or anything.'

'Hello? Son of Hades here!' Nico exclaimed. 'Your dad hates me enough already and I'm pretty sure he's been waiting for the opportunity to "fry me" for a long time!'

'I knew I should have asked Percy,' Thalia muttered, before finding the blue spray can and straightening up. 'All right, let's make a masterpiece!'

Nico tossed the can from one hand to another nervously. 'You first,' he insisted.

Thalia threw him a look of contempt, shaking the spray can vigorously and uncapping it. Nico drew in a breath as she began to spray something carefully on the side of Zeus' Fist.

When she was done, Thalia leaned back and admired her handiwork. 'See?' she called over her shoulder to Nico. 'I'm completely unfried.'

Nico walked up beside her. 'Hey!' he cried, offended. Thalia had written _Nico is a scaredy-cat_ and a quick drawing of Nico's head being struck by a lightning bolt.

Thalia smirked. 'Consider it a challenge,' she said, nodding towards the can Nico was holding in his hands.

'Oh, you're on,' Nico said. Directly underneath Thalia's message, he wrote, _Thalia is a huge Justin Bieber fan_.

'Okay, things just got personal,' Thalia hissed, instantly beginning to spray another message, but Nico nudged her out of the way and began to write one of his own on top of it, and thus began the graffiti war.

By the morning, Zeus' Fist looked like a unicorn had thrown up on it. The campers totally forgot about Capture The Flag that night, opting instead to paint their own messages on the giant pile of rocks. From then on, it became an unofficial initiation for new campers to write something on the rock. Nico and Thalia became camp legends.

The campers were kind of surprised that Chiron didn't say anything about it. Honestly, he was just glad that Nico and Thalia had stopped using his wheelchair to hide food in.

* * *

><p><strong>Sled<strong>

'Of course Percy's good at sledding,' Thalia grumbled, drawing circles in the snow with the toe of her boot. 'Just add it to the list of his perfections.'

Percy stopped bragging about his sledding adventures and rolled his eyes. 'You don't have to be bitter just because you can't sled,' he said.

'I can sled perfectly fine if I want to!' Thalia said defensively. 'I just choose not to.'

'Riiiiight,' Percy said, giving a cough that sounded suspiciously like "bitter".

'Don't you have a sword-fighting class to teach now?' Nico interrupted. Thalia was beginning to look sulky, and that was dangerous for everyone, so he thought it was best if he intervened.

Percy glanced at his watch. 'Oh no! I'm gonna be late! Bye!' He got up and practically flew to the sword-fighting arena, knocking into a few campers on his way.

Thalia glared after him. 'Jackass,' she muttered.

'Are you really taking him seriously?' Nico asked, raising his eyebrows.

'I _can_ go sledding,' she insisted. 'It's just … you know. I don't really like heights that much.'

'Oh,' Nico said as comprehension dawned on him. Thalia hugged her knees and sighed, looking upset.

Nico grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. 'I have an idea,' he said, tugging her into the forest.

'What?' she said curiously, as Nico dropped to his knees and began piling up snow.

'Let's make our own 3-foot-tall snow mountain, and you can sled off that,' Nico said. 'Now come help me build this thing.'

Thalia laughed, gratitude shining in her eyes, as she joined Nico on the floor and began to make a mini-mountain. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to them trying to get snow into each other's clothes, but finally it was finished: a wobbly, 3-foot-tall mountain.

Thalia borrowed a sled from one of the campers and came back clutching it and looking slightly nervous.

'Come on!' Nico encouraged her. 'Just to prove something to Percy!'

Thalia nodded, steeled herself, placed the sled on the top of the snow pile and jumped on it. Instead of sliding down it, Thalia fell right through the middle of the mountain.

She shrieked as she was encased by snow, the slush seeping through her boots and clothes. 'Nico!' she yelped. 'Come help me!'

Nico was too busy trying not to choke on his laughter to do anything. He was doubled over laughing, tears in the corners of his eyes. Eventually he had to compose himself enough to tug Thalia out because she had started throwing snowballs at his face.

Thalia immediately rushed back to her cabin with Nico following behind. Soon, she was sitting on the heated floor, all her blankets and most of her clothes wrapped around her as she shivered miserably.

'So,' Nico said. 'How did your first sledding experience go?'

He laughed as he dodged the boot thrown at his head.

* * *

><p><strong>Melt<strong>

'This is disgusting,' Nico complained, shaking his hair out like a dog. 'I'm sweating like a pig!'

Nico and Thalia had gotten caught putting itching powder in the Aphrodite cabin's underwear drawer and they were on kitchen duty for a week. Unfortunately for them, the harpies used lava to wash the dishes, which meant two things: one, they had to wear elbow-length fireproof gloves weighing 20 pounds each; two, the heat in the room was unbearable.

'I'm pretty sure this breaks like a hundred child safety rules,' Thalia grumbled, putting a clean plate on the rack. Nico dropped the plate he was holding and it shattered on the floor.

'Great,' Thalia sighed heavily. She wanted to rub at her aching temples but remembered that her hands were coated in burning lava at the last moment.

'It's not my fault!' Nico exclaimed. 'These gloves are as heavy as an obese baby! I can barely move my fingers in them, let alone wash a million dishes!'

'Stop whining,' Thalia said with a roll of her eyes, wiping her gloves on towel near the sink, which was made of fire-resistant fibers. 'You're just grumpy because you're overheated.'

Thalia tugged off her gloves and was suddenly drenched in a rush of freezing cold liquid. She shrieked and jumped back, blinking water out of her eyes until she was able to see Nico, grinning triumphantly and holding a hose.

'You're dead!' Thalia growled, lunging at him and wrestling the hose out of his hands before turning it on him full blast. Nico spluttered and stepped backwards, slipping on a puddle and collapsing in a heap on the floor. Thalia immediately took the opportunity to spray the icy water directly into his face until he begged for mercy.

'I think you've learned your lesson,' she grinned, hanging the hose back up on the wall. Nico got up, twisting water out of the hem of his soaked shirt.

'You're evil,' he complained.

'Who knew kitchen duty could be fun?' Thalia laughed. Nico shook his head hard, dousing Thalia in water droplets from his hair, which caused her to make another grab for the hose.

Needless to say, the dishes didn't get done that day.

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks to everybody for reading this chapter and please review! :)<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So guys, this is the final chapter of When Thunder Meets Lightning. I know I haven't updated in ages and I can't promise that I will, so I've decided to just finish it here. (Also, y'know, 10 chapters, a nice even number.) I just want to thank all of you so much for reading this far and sticking with me through my crazily unbalanced updating schedule and for all the amazing reviews. And hey, no promises, but maybe sometime the muse will hit me and I'll add another little chapter!**

**Without further ado, the final chapter!**

* * *

><p><strong>Mermaid<strong>

'Why did we let Percy talk us into this again?' Thalia grumbled, attempting to shield her face from the glaring sun.

'Because we're idiots who never learn,' Nico said, rolling his eyes. It was summer at CampHalf-Blood, which meant that the place was even more crowded than usual. The kids who lived with their mortal families for the rest of the year were streaming in and it was a bit overwhelming, so Percy had suggested a day off. Nico had agreed fervently. He'd volunteered to teach the campers how to fight in close combat with short swords, and he was coming to regret the decision deeply. His class was now filled with inexperienced first-year campers that had not even the slightest idea what they were doing, and Nico wasn't known for his patience. The only bright side was that they were inflicting so many wounds on each other, it saved Nico the trouble of doing it himself.

Percy was also having trouble with the large amount of classes he taught, so he and Nico coaxed Annabeth and Thalia into having a day off with them at the beach to paddle-surf. However, as soon as the got there, Percy and Annabeth hopped onto a paddleboard and instantly paddled away, leaving Nico and Thalia together with no clue as to what they were supposed to be doing.

Of course, Thalia had sat down on the board and refused to do anything, so it was up to Nico to do all the work.

'You're so useless,' Thalia complained, as Nico attempted to switch the oar to his left hand without tipping over the board. 'Can't you angle us away from the sun? It's like a million degrees, for Hades' sakes.'

'My sincerest apologies,' Nico deadpanned. 'You must be so tired from doing absolutely nothing.'

'Jerk,' she muttered, before suddenly sitting up straight and squinting into the distance. 'Hey, d'you see that? Something's, like, shining.'

'Maybe it's the sun's reflection on the water?' Nico suggested, voice dripping with sarcasm.

'Shut up, smartass. It's over there.' Thalia pointed at something to their right. Nico watched the spot, and after a few moments a blue fin surfaced above the water and went back down under.

'Oh, crap. If it's a shark, you're going over first,' Nico said, frantically trying to make his way back to shore.

'Don't splash, moron! You're attracting it!' Thalia exclaimed, even as she attempted to paddle with her hands. Sure enough, the fin was heading towards them, and it was coming faster.

'Mother of _Zeus_ –' The sky crackled ominously. 'Not the time, Dad!' Thalia yelled at the sky. 'Where's Percy when you need him?'

'Hey, wait, it's not a shark,' Nico said, stilling the oar and trying to get a better look. 'Oh my gods. You're not gonna believe this.'

Thalia opened her mouth to respond, but something broke the surface of the water less than two feet away from the board. She shrieked, nearly toppling into the water.

It was a girl's head, with curly turquoise hair only a shade lighter than her blue skin, and glowing green eyes. When she smiled at Nico, she revealed two rows of tiny shark teeth. Behind her, her tail splashed playfully in the water.

Nico blinked. 'Are … are you a mermaid?' he asked, although she looked more like a mutant monster or something.

'Why, yes,' said the mermaid, sounding delighted. 'I'm Tallulah.'

'Um, that's nice,' Nico said.

'Will you come swim with me?' Tallulah asked, batting her eyelids. 'I asked that other boy with green eyes, but the yellow-haired girl got angry at me.' She pouted.

'Actually, we were trying to get back to shore,' Thalia interrupted.

'Yeah, we were,' Nico said, grateful for the excuse. 'Hey, could you help us get back?'

Tallulah stopped glaring at Thalia to give Nico the shark-toothed smile again. 'Of course!' she giggled, ducking underwater and pushing the board gently to shore.

'Phew, that was close,' Nico said. 'At least it wasn't a shark.'

'I think I would've preferred a shark,' Thalia snorted, then yelped when something hit the bottom of her side of the board.

It only took five minutes to get back to shore, despite the fact that it took Nico's careful paddling half an hour to get to where they were. As soon as it was shallow enough to walk, Thalia hopped off the board and swam for it. Nico stayed until the board hit the sand, and then got off. Thalia stood with her arms folded, half-soaked and shivering.

'You didn't have to swim,' Nico pointed out. 'It's freezing.'

'I didn't trust that thing not to tip me off,' she said accusingly, rubbing her arms.

A small cough alerted them to the fact that Tallulah was sitting in the shallow water, smiling expectantly.

'Oh, um, hi. Thanks for getting us back,' Nico said. Spotting a shiny white shell, he picked it up and held it out to Tallulah.

She made a bubble-like sound in the back of her throat and took the shell from Nico, turning it over in her hands. 'How sweet of you,' she gushed, her cheeks turning a dark blue. She gave a smile that she probably thought was beguiling, but was slightly creepy thanks to the teeth. 'Will you come swimming another time?' she asked sweetly.

'Thanks, but no thanks,' Thalia said.

'Not you,' Tallulah snapped. 'You,' she said in a sweeter tone, turning her head towards Nico.

'Um, I'm not sure, Tallulah, I've got a pretty schedule at camp, but I'll get back to you,' Nico said quickly. 'Bye. Thanks for the ride!' With that, he grabbed Thalia's arm and started pulling her towards camp.

'I think someone's got a crush on you,' Thalia teased.

'Uh, no thanks. I think I'd forever be in fear of being eaten,' Nico said with a shudder.

'I hope she tries to attack Percy again,' Thalia said. 'Serves him right for abandoning us like that.'

'Totally,' Nico said. 'I say we get back at him. In the meantime, though, we still have the day left. Wanna ride Mrs. O'Leary in the woods?'

'Sure. Maybe we can terrorize some of the new kids while we're at it,' Thalia suggested.

They walked together, discussing the day's plans, not noticing that somewhere along the way, their fingers had interlocked.

* * *

><p><strong>Saddle<strong>

'Thalia, you're the worst hider ever. I can see you. Get out of there, you're going to suffocate.'

Thalia reluctantly surfaced from the pile of hay she was hiding in, brushing straw off her clothes and out of her hair. 'You're the worst,' she grumbled, stomping over to Nico in defeat.

'It's going to be fine, stop being such a baby,' Nico snorted.

'How did this topic even come up?'

'Uh, when I asked you to ride the pegasi with me and you said no because you were afraid of heights, maybe?' Nico said sarcastically.

'Can't we just leave it that way?' Thalia pleaded.

'Nope. Absolutely not. Pegasus riding is one of the most basic demigod skills. Not to mention that if word gets out that the daughter of Zeus has vertigo, nobody is going to take you seriously.'

'And how exactly will word get out?' Thalia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Nico didn't answer, polishing his skull ring on his t-shirt and whistling Chopin's Funeral March.

'You're terrible,' Thalia said. 'You are a terrible, terrible person. Has anyone ever told you that?'

'Multiple times,' Nico replied cheerfully. 'Never in a stable, though, so points for originality.'

Thalia sighed. 'Alright, Satan, let's just get this over with. Which one am I riding again?'

'The white one,' Nico said, gesturing.

The pegasus whinnied, affronted, and tossed his mane.

'His name is Guido,' Nico clarified, rolling his eyes.

Thalia opened the stable door and Guido trotted out, spreading his wings and trotting on the spot. Thalia looked up at him nervously, and then at Nico. 'Um. Help?'

'Just hop on,' Nico said.

Guido crouched obediently, and after a lot of slipping and cursing, Thalia managed to hoist herself onto his back. Once seated, she gripped two handfuls of his long mane and squeezed her eyes shut.

'Geez, why do you look so terrified? We're not even off the ground yet,' Nico said, sounding more amused at this than he should be.

Thalia opened her eyes to give him a death glare. 'I repeat, let's just get this over with,' she said through clenched teeth.

Nico just gave her an insufferable grin and walked out of the stables. Guido followed him, trotting at a fairly slow pace. Even so, Thalia gave a little muffled squeak and turned so pale her freckles stood out.

Once they were out in the open, Nico said to Thalia, 'Okay, hold on tight. I'm gonna count to three, then you're gonna take off, okay?'

'Wait a second! Aren't you coming with me?' Thalia demanded.

'Are you kidding? I scare the crap out of these things. They'd throw me off at the first chance,' Nico said, like this was something obvious. 'You're gonna have to go this one solo.'

'_What?_' Thalia yelled. 'Nico di Angelo, you get me off this gods-damned beast right now or I swear to everything holy –'

'Go, Guido!' Nico exclaimed, and without further ado Guido took off, flapping his wings and rising into the air. Thalia cut off her threats to give a loud shriek and bury her face in Guido's mane, uttering prayers to her father. The pegasus flew in lazy circles a few times before decidedly getting bored of having a squealing madwoman on his back and landing right in front of Nico.

'Okay, Thalia, you can stop screaming now, you're on solid ground,' Nico said soothingly.

Thalia's head whipped to look at him, and the look in her eyes could only be described as murderous. 'Nico, I am going to kill you slowly, and then feed you to the harpies, and then burn your bones and scatter the ashes in the Styx,' she hissed, the color returning to her faces.

Nico smiled. 'You can't get off, can you?'

'No. Help.' As Nico helped her off the pegasus, trying to contain his laughter, Thalia added, 'by the way, I am so planning the next date.'

* * *

><p><strong>Rain<strong>

Nico couldn't sleep anyway that night. He hated the sound of rain and it always kept him up. However, when Thalia pounded at his door in the middle of the night, he pretended to be half-asleep and pissed off, just for the fun of it.

'What could you possibly want?' he groaned, opening the door.

Thalia stood soaking in her faded Green Day tee, black sweatpants and furry Batman slippers, clutching her pillow and shivering in the rain. 'Can I crash here?' she asked, her voice unusually small.

'Uh, yeah. Sure.' Nico opened the door wider, sweeping some of the junk coating the floor under the bed. Thalia instantly hopped onto the bed, rolling over and burying her face in her pillow.

'By the way, Thalia, you can take the bed, I insist,' Nico said in a monotone.

'Shut up, corpse breath,' Thalia retorted, her voice muffled by the pillow. Nico leaned against the side of the bed, crossing his arms.

'So, what was wrong with the big, spacious Zeus cabin?' Nico asked.

Thalia sighed and sat up, hugging her pillow to her chest. 'Thanks to all the empty spaciousness, the wind was really cold there,' Thalia said.

'So your solution to being cold was to walk out in the pouring, freezing rain,' Nico concluded. 'I see the logic in that, I really do.'

Thalia smacked Nico's head with the pillow. 'Not in the mood, di Angelo,' she snapped.

'Geez, okay. And they say men are violent,' Nico muttered venomously, rubbing the back of his head.

There was silence for a few beats, during which Nico listened to the insufferable noise of raindrops on the roof of the cabin, and then Thalia cleared her throat. 'Okay. I wasn't really cold.'

'I guessed.'

Thalia ran a hand through her messy black locks. 'It's just … I don't like the rain. It was raining the day I ran away from home, so the rain reminds me of my mom, and her death, and the big creepy statue of my dad in the cabin doesn't exactly help, and …' Thalia trailed off, squeezing her pillow tighter.

'I know. I get sad when stuff reminds me of Bianca, too,' Nico said, trying to sound sympathetic.

'I'm not sad,' Thalia snapped. 'The statue's just really creepy, okay?'

'Okay,' Nico agreed, hopping up onto the bed and hugging Thalia. She must have been either really tired or really sad, because she just went limp in his arms, resting her head against his shoulder.

Thalia was quiet for a long time. Nico was just beginning to think that she'd fallen asleep when she murmured, 'Despite all this, I really like the sound of rain. It calms me down.'

'Yeah. I really like it too,' Nico lied absently. He couldn't help but think that Thalia was still pretty with her hair damp and flat and tear tracks down her face. On a sudden, crazy impulse, Nico cupped Thalia's face and bent his head to kiss her gently.

Surprisingly enough, she didn't punch Nico in the face. In fact, when they broke apart, she grinned at him and said, 'About damn time.' Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

And yeah, the rain was still loud and annoying and Thalia was all cold and wet and Nico was one inch away from falling off the bed, but it was absolutely perfect.

* * *

><p><strong>So, I decided to end it on a slightly sappy note. Again, thank you all a million times for reading, reviewing, favoriting, alerting, and not killing me for almost-abandoning this thing. I have such a huge emotional attachment to this story and I'm sad to see it end, but hopefully the future will bring more good things! (And, as always ... review!)<strong>


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